HCA Scholarly Articles

The following is a model open-access policy in the Harvard style—with a freely waivable rights-retaining license and a deposit requirement. This language is based on and informed by the policies voted by several Harvard faculties, as well as MIT, Stanford University School of Education, Duke University, and others. I have added some annotations explaining why the wording is chosen as it is. Extensive information about good practices for university open-access policies is provided in a widely endorsed guide from the Harvard Open Access Project (http://bit.ly/goodoa). We would greatly appreciate your help in assessing how institutions are using the model open-access policy and how it could be improved.

Harvard University’s network of over seventy libraries experiences an average of ten collection emergencies each year. To prevent collection loss, reduce staff stress, and improve recovery outcomes, we have created broad-based emergency training for library staff at all levels. Our dynamic and comprehensive training program supports a centralized response team that is highly effective, and a community of library staff who are comfortable with initial response procedures and emergency planning. Bi-annual intensive, hands-on training consists of a mock water emergency with a variety of de-accessioned collection materials in which participants learn first-hand how to be aware of their own safety, communicate to initiate response action, take preemptive action to prevent further damage, and set up a salvage operation. Other training components include a collections emergency preparedness bench-marking workshop for library administrators and managers, hands-on collections salvage for curators and collection managers, format-specific identification and salvage for staff working with audiovisual materials, a one-hour basic emergency training for student workers, and tabletop exercises for local emergency teams to practice their emergency plans.

Harvard Library Preservation Services staff coordinate the training sessions, and have created a number of publicly available resources to complement the training. We collaborate with a number of Harvard groups to ensure that sound best practices are employed, that communication and roles are as clear as possible, and that everyone is at the table to improve the content of the training. Library managers contribute deep understanding of the collection priorities and library staff needs. Harvard’s operations and facilities staff help us understand building response methods and how they coordinate emergency responders and contractors. Environmental health and safety staff inform best practices for safe emergency response. And everyone shares wisdom gained through experience, both the successes and the lessons learned. We hope this paper will allow other emergency teams to benefit from our mistakes and discoveries.

Fair Use/Fair Dealing Week is a great example of successful grassroots organizing by cultural institutions, including libraries, archives, museums, and other institutions to celebrate one of the most critical of all copyright topics: fair use (and, later, fair dealing).

Cultural heritage objects present a special set of challenges to analyze chemically. Often micro-sampling or even contacting the object is not appropriate or deemed too risky for fragile surfaces. Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy is a commonly used analytical technique for organic compound identification, either in a micro-sampling or Attenuated Total Reflection (ATR) mode, both of which inherently require some measure of contact with the sample. Presented here is a case study of the use of specular reflection FTIR spectroscopy, an FTIR collection mode that allows positive chemical identifications in a non-sampling and non-contact way. Although this paper focuses on the case study of coatings on 19th century photographs, the specular reflection FTIR mode is applicable to surface coatings on any artifact where molecular composition identification is needed but micro-sampling or physical contact with the sample have been ruled out. The main limitation of the specular reflection mode has traditionally been the lack of specular reflection FTIR reference libraries. As a result, the analytical project presented here first required generation of a specular reflection FTIR spectral library for historical coating materials used on 19th century prints by creating modern reference samples. The project is a result of collaboration between conservators at the Weissman Preservation Center at Harvard Library and materials scientists at Harvard’s Center for Nanoscale Systems to analyze original coatings on 19th century salted paper photographs in the collection of the Harvard University Archives.

Over the past decade, colleges and universities have been adopting institutional open access (OA) policies that encourage, direct, or give rights to authors to make their research publicly available in institutional repositories (IRs). These networked databases are often created to serve these OA policies, distributing an author’s research to a global online audience. Without copyright law, these policies and the supporting IRs could not exist: copyright law is the engine of a successful OA policy and thereby a successful IR. In particular, US copyright law features a statute that allows creators to transfer rights for a work without actually giving up total control of it. These non-exclusive rights are the foundation of the OA movement in the US.

This chapter begins with a brief introduction to the benefits and management of OA policies, focusing on their basis in copyright law and author rights. It continues with an examination of the ongoing disagreements among OA practitioners and publishers about what OA actually means and how the term “open access” can pose communication and workflow challenges for those working with institutional OA policies. Within this context, the authors describe common OA policy workflows and the activities librarians undertake to determine what version of an article can be deposited in an IR as well as how to communicate these nuances to campus stakeholders. It concludes with advice on how an IR can be used to advocate for author rights and comply with copyright law.