The Ubiquitous Librarian (Brian Mathews)

File Sharers Swap Scholarly Materials Too: a glimpse into the real world of “open access”

For legal purposes, this post is a work of fiction. I do not endorse illegal file sharing, nor do I know anyone who participates in such terrible and illicit behavior. Any apparent violation of copyright is for demonstrative purposes only.

A student sent me a direct twitter message Friday afternoon asking about a book he needed for a paper. I didn't have my phone on me so I wasn't able to respond right away. A few hours later he messaged again saying he was able to find the book online, so not to worry about helping him. (Note: the book was not in our collection, but a library in our consortium bought it as an ebook and so that showed up in our shared catalog. However, he could not access their copy.) We messaged back and forth a little later that evening and I discovered that he found the item in PDF via bit torrent.

This fascinated me because I knew that these “criminal” web services carried music, movies, and software, but I didn't think they would also have scholarly materials. So today I decided to take a peek and see just what I could find. (Note: Big, powerful publishers, don't sue me, I'm just a journalist here!) I started my search with the keywords: CRC Handbook. This is the first page that came back.

 

The most interesting thing on this list is Elsevier's complete Referex Engineering Collection. We're talking 700+ books of hardcore engineering. 4.69 GB and it's on your desktop in PDF.

   

What about IEEE? Sure! Do you want books? Do you want journals? Do you want conference papers?

How about a current issue of Science?

 

Or the Harvard Business Review?

 

Or Harvard Business Cases?

 

And what about textbooks?

  

Or ebooks?

I found this absolutely fascinating. Yet it doesn't really surprise me. I walked away from file sharing apps back when the original Napster was closed down. But during that brief time I discovered a lot of great underground music. (RIAA I'm lieing.) I know as librarians we're supposed to be champions of copyright, but I have to admit that I was impressed by the quality of resources that I was able to find in ten minutes. So of course, I in no way endorse these sites, and I don't encourage you to look at The Pirate Bay or BTJunkie, but if you did, these are the types of things you'd find. Along with the new U2 and Thursday albums.

This adds fuel to the argument “why would I use the library when I can get what I need online?” I picture a student in an instruction session watching the librarian guide the class through a handful of databases, and then he goes home and uses a simple file sharing search tool and gets books on the ethics of cloning. Or an engineering prof who needs sources that are too expensive for the library to purchase. This might be illegal, but the system is easy and intuitive and 100 times better than what we're providing now. I would love to test MetaLib vs. LimeWire in the area of usability. So while I can already see that scowl on your face, step back a minute. We can learn a lot.

If someone, preferably someone I have not met yet and who maybe works in the collections/licensing side of things, wants to do a formal study about the “underground market” of scholarly materials found on free file sharing sites, email me. I'm sort of booked up the rest of the Spring, but this could make for an interesting Summer project. We'll publish in an Elsevier journal and then leak it online.

10 things your web team should talk about and oh yeah, Library 2.1

I noticed that I get a lot of readers whenever I post about “web stuff’ so here you go. A peek at a few of the things I’ve been working on:

 

Web Design Matters: Ten essentials for any library site

Library Journal, 2.15.09

 

Looking for what’s next: Is it time to start talking about Library 2.1? (preprint)

Journal of Web Librarianship, v 3(2)

 

Note: LJ contacted me about writing the "10 things" article. If you think I missed something or want to suggest #11, go for it in the comments, just be nice.

 

Oh yeah, and Shaq still has it!

Looking for the next big gaming trend?

It seems that librarians are always looking for the next big gaming trend. Here you go: Speed Sudoku

   

And just for kicks, take a look at the my queue. Netflix is killing me with the long waits.

iPhone Apps and the Library (if you can’t build one, join one)

I think it would be cool to design and develop an iPhone app.  However I know I am biased because I love my iPhone. Leaving my personal thoughts aside, it is not a priority for my library right now.  I think DCPL and WorldCat are doing interesting work and I am content to live vicariously through them.

However, that doesn’t exclude me for reaching users via their iPhones. At Georgia Tech a group of students built an app designed for the GT community. The core feature is that the app makes it easy to login to the campus wireless system. The normal way is a pain, but the GT app makes it very convenient. It also provides functional links to things like the real-time bus schedule, campus email, a campus map and the course management system. In short it is gives students the tools they need/want all in one spot.

I emailed the developers and asked them to considering adding the library’s computer availability map. Within two weeks it was there. This adds real value because now a student leaving class can check the status of computers in the library.

It is easy for us (as librarians) to complain that we don’t have money or staff to develop cool things—but sometimes that’s ok, because maybe we can partner with those who are (doing cool things) and get our materials and resources included in their work. Instead of investing our time in “a library app” we can attach ourselves to an already popular and successful  app and gain a wider audience. It would be nice to work with them to develop an easy way to scan journal articles or to search for books. I am sure that NCSU is working on the definitive iPhone app right now anyway and that we will all copy them, but in the meantime, see if others in your community are working on something that you can be a part of. That’s the ubiquitous approach.

   

Updated: 2.11.09
What about the Stanford iPhone App?

I think their app is beautiful. It’s filled with lots of great tools. It’s top notch.

But…

It was created by a design firm. It has a very “institutionalized” vibe. Pay your fees, registrar for classes, follow the sports teams, look someone up. I think every tech-centric campus should definitely consider an iPhone app, but what I really admire about the GT app is that it is for-students by-students. It has a much more gritty, genuine, start-up feel about it. It is more organic and approachable.