Turning to Dust or Digital
Denise Troll Covey
Associate University Librarian, Carnegie Mellon
Future of the Book Conference
Cairns, Australia – April 2003
Perilous Facts
Books are turning to dust on library shelves
Even if digitized, books can disappear or go dark,
& licenses & technologies can trump legal uses
Stewardship of our heritage is endangered
Equitable access is becoming a platitude
Education & scholarship are in peril
The Copyright Absurdity
95% of books ever printed
are still in copyright
< 3% are still in print
92% of the world’s books
are neither generating
revenue for the copyright
owner nor easily accessible
to potential readers
Solution:
Copyright Permission for Open Access
Protecting
private interest
Promoting
public good
Digital Free-to-Read Feasibility Study
Statistically valid random sample
Couldn’t locate publisher for over 10% books
If located publisher, half didn’t respond
If got response, fewer than half gave permission
If got permission, fees or other restrictions applied
Overall success rate 22%
Success of Copyright Permission
Books
Articles
Total items
1. Copyright protected
2. Publishers contacted
3. Publishers responded
Permission granted
337
94%
88%
51%
43%
96
70%
70%
45%
90%
Overall success rate
22%
28%
Carnegie
Mellon
1999-2001
Wayne
State
2000
Permission by Publisher Type
Success
Rate
Scholarly
associations
University
presses
Museums
& galleries
Commercial
publishers
45%
75%
50%
37%
25%
31%
0%
12%
Success
Rate
NoResponse
Rate
Library
Content
Labor Cost to Digitize Books
$25 - $150 per book in the United States
– Digitization, OCR, metadata capture, & initial storage
– Not hardware, software, or catalog links
– Contingent on characteristics of book & scanner
Disbound book
Bound book
Rare book
Copyright Permission Costs
Permission cost – Fee for permission itself
– Hundreds of dollars per book
Transaction cost – Labor & related costs
– Hundreds of dollars per request
1,000
Total Cost Millions
Books
Articles
Wayne State
$26,000 40,000
(51%)
Permission $85
netLibrary
Transaction $24,500 (49%)
Questia $127
40,000
TOTAL
$50,500
Free-to-Read Million Book Project
Digitize 1,000,000 books in 5 years
– NSF - $3.6 million for equipment & travel
– India - $1.5 million for labor (1000 people for 5 years)
– Led by Carnegie Mellon Libraries & Computer Science
– U.S. Partners – Internet Archives, OCLC, & libraries
Collection Development
November 2001 (NSF)
– Collection of collections
• 200,000 indigenous Indian works
• 700,000 public domain works
• 100,000 copyrighted works – Books for College Libraries
November 2003
– Select more bibliographies
– Strategize logistics
Scanning Underway in India
Labor cheaper than in U.S., but high paid in India
Each scanner, 2 shifts a day = 4000 books a year
100 scanners – 400,000 books per year
Copyright Negotiations
Educate
– Find online, but use print
– Online access increases use
– Open access doesn’t decrease,
& can increase sales
– Copyright absurdity
Ask
– Non-exclusive permission
to digitize & offer free-to-read
– Minimal system functionality
– Focus on out-of-print books
Give
– Preservation-quality copies
– Metadata & OCR
Motivate
– $$ Use in added-value,
fee-based services
– $$ Print on demand
for out-of-print titles
– $$ Buy button
for in-print titles
Initial Copyright Approach
Do not pay permission cost
Focus on out-of-print, in-copyright titles
– Books for College Libraries has 50,000 titles
– Begin with scholarly associations & university presses
Transaction cost per title is prohibitive
– Identifying & inserting titles in letters
– Negotiating & tracking permission per title
Epiphany & New Approach
Focus on publishers of quality books
– Treat bibliographies as approval plan of publishers
– Books for College Libraries has 5600 publishers
Ask for permission to digitize
–
–
–
–
All out-of-print, in-copyright titles
All titles published prior to a date of their choosing
All titles published # or more years ago
List of titles they choose
Follow-up with phone call or visit

Results of New Approach
Estimate transaction costs remain the same
– Shift $$ from clerical to administration
But acquire more books for $$ spent
– National Academy Press – 99% increase
• 26 titles in Books for College Libraries
• Permission for 3046 titles
– Brookings Institution – 96% increase
– Rand McNally – 60% increase
“More Bang for the Buck”
Initial
In Copyright
Public Domain
Indigenous Indian
Current
Projections
Success rate
# of books
(# BCL publishers) per publisher
Million Book
Collection
3% (168)
1500
252,000
5% (280)
1500
420,000
20% (1,120)
1500
1,680,000
We could need to negotiate
with India for more labor
Current Status
100 letters sent
– 6% permission granted – 5% copyright reverted to author
– 5% permission denied
– 21% negotiations underway
– 1% no electronic rights
– 4% incorrect address
– 52% no follow-up or response
Hiring full-time staff & distributing negotiations
Copyright Workflow #1
Identify & contact publishers
Negotiate permission
No
Update publisher database
Yes
Update publisher database
Locate, acquire, & ship to India
Carnegie Mellon
Scan & OCR
Capture metadata
Return books as needed
Send copies to Carnegie Mellon
India
Copyright Workflow #2
Locate, acquire, & ship to India
Scan & OCR
Capture metadata
Return books as needed
Send copies to Carnegie Mellon
Carnegie Mellon
India
Identify & contact publishers
Update publisher
database as needed
Negotiate permissions
No
Yes
Update publisher database
Update administrative metadata
Metadata
Bibliographic - for delivery system
– MARC record or Dublin Core
Administrative - for reporting system
–
–
–
–
–
–
Bibliographic metadata
Source library
Return requested
Copyright status – check renewal records
Permission status – used by delivery system
Copies sent to publishers, libraries, & mirror sites

Funding Copyright Permission
Foundation proposals not funded
UC Merced – $35,000 pending
IMLS – pending
Cost share 51%
of total project
IMLS
Copyright, collection development,
$234,700
& project management
$445,000
Acquisitions, shipping,
$265,300
& survey software
Outcomes assessment
TOTAL $500,000
$78,000
$523,000
Copyright Assessments
Number of copyrighted books in the Collection
Success rate of permission requests
Participating publisher
– Overall satisfaction
– Quality of the copies
– What they did or plan to do with the copies
– Impact on revenue & view of open access