Showing posts with label Resources. Show all posts

THIS WEEK AT THE WOI LIBRARY: May 9 - 16

From talking to the animals to the Conan Doyle's Great detective, learning to fly, and the rich culture of Wales, there's a bright bouquet of stories to share this week:

All Stories read live in voice. All times are SLT.

Monday, May 10 at 7:00pm: Part II: Doctor Dolittle with Caledonia Skytower

Tuesday, May 11 at 6:00pm: Deadliners Writer's Group lead by Gracee Andel (aka Ellen Anthony) in the Library Lower Level
at 7:00pm: Part I: Jonathan Livingston Seagull with Gina Pralou

Wednesday, May 12 at 7:00pm : A Scandal in Bohemia - a Sherlock Holmes Mystery with Onyx Plutonian

Thursday, May 13 at 7:00pm: A Journey into the Fairy & Folklore of Wales with Seanchai Shandon Loring

Sunday, May 16 at 1:00pm: Tales of Celtic Saints with Dubhna Rhiadra

And More WOI Story events across the Grid . . .

Sunday, May 9 at 3pm: WOI Storytellers at Pandora in the Fruit Islands

Sunday, May 9 at 6:30pm: Tales of Robin Hood with Caledonia Skytower at Magicland Park

Stories all read Live in VOICE. Click on the Celtic Cross Window Ornament or the Large Green Leather Book by the Librarian's desk at the WOI Library for a notecard with this schedule and embedded landmarks for events happening "off-campus."

TUESDAY 4 May @ 6pm: Deadliners Writers Group Meets

Ok all you writers facing Deadlines, gather downstairs in the WOI Library with Gracee Andel, to give your projects a little kick!

NEW! Blog Link Inside the WOI Library

Brand spanking new for the New Year is this delightful little "doo-hickee" in the library located right by the door above the Alexandrian Library Subscriber Kiosk. It is a sign which provides a link to this very Blog from right inside the library! Click on the sign, and you will get a blue dialogue box on your screen asking if you'd like to be connected. Clicking in the affirmative will open your computer's browser and it will bring you RIGHT HERE!

You can check schedules this way, immediately participate in our blog polls, and also look for links that are sometimes included in blog postings to more references or resources for a particular author or subject. We think this is a potentially cool addition to the library's operations. Give it a click and let us know if you agree!

More About Copyright - International Implications

At a recent workshop held by the Librarians of Second Life at Info Island on the issue of copyright by Dru Zuretti of the Copyright Clearance Center (www.copyright.com) of Danvers, MA. Ms. Zuretti covered a wide scope of the basics of Title 17 statutes and how they may apply to Second Life content and usage.

International copyright issues were touched upon in this presentation and it was pointed out that, in general, copyright infringements are governed by the laws of the country in which the allegedly infringing activity occurs. This was reinforced by some internet sleuthing which revealed statements which suggested that the litigation is pursued internationally, for the most part, only when substantial market damage is being perpetrated on the right holder – i.e. someone is making a lot of money passing off someone else’s work as their own.

The Berne Convention (from Wikipedia) “The Berne Convention was developed at the instigation of Victor Hugo (in 1886) of the Association Littéraire et Artistique Internationale. Thus it was influenced by the French "right of the author" (droit d'auteur), which contrasts with the Anglo-Saxon concept of "copyright" which only dealt with economic concerns. Under the Convention, copyrights for creative works are automatically in force upon their creation without being asserted or declared. An author need not "register" or "apply for" a copyright in countries adhering to the Convention. As soon as a work is "fixed", that is, written or recorded on some physical medium, its author is automatically entitled to all copyrights in the work and to any derivative works, unless and until the author explicitly disclaims them or until the copyright expires. Foreign authors are given the same rights and privileges to copyrighted material as domestic authors in any country that signed the Convention . . .

“. . . The World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright Treaty was adopted in 1996 to address the issues raised by information technology and the Internet, which were not addressed by the Berne Convention.”

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See the entire entry of the above Wikipedia article complete with its embedded links at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention_for_the_Protection_of_Literary_and_Artistic_Works

WIPO and the Berne Convention . . . the 1996 WIPO World Copyright Treaty:

http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/wct/

http://www.copyright.gov/wipo/treaty1.html

How We Do That Voo-Doo . . . Reading Literature in the West of Ireland Library

“The Library’s policies regarding Copyright Law are designed to accommodate the tradition of oral storytelling of both Traditional and Contemporary literary works in a manner that upholds the rights of authors.

“Library presentations are a means of advancing knowledge. We believe education and entertainment go hand in hand in the literary realm. To this end The Library encourages Storytellers and presenters to provide information and objects related to the presentation to guests to enhance their experience.”

--from the newly adopted WOI Library Copyrighted Works Policy

(Release Version 01 – 12.20.2009)

The subject of Intellectual Property Rights in Second Life (SL) has been a topic of passionate advocacy and heated debate over the last several months. Everything from “copybotting” (a bot placed in a location which steals objects created by one to be taken and sold by another who did not create them) to the presentation of copyrighted works has been subject to scrutiny and question. How does that affect the West of Ireland (WOI) Library and Cultural Center?

The purpose of a library, real world or virtual, is to promote literary works and to act as a community resource. We usually think of this as involving a large collection of books, periodicals, varied media (music, movies) and computers for online research.

It might interest you to know that the WOI Library there is actually a “collection” which is contained in the bookshelves near the Library entrance. Four of the bookcases contain specific genres of literature in notecard form: Women’s Literature, Science Fiction-Fantasy, Shakespeare, etc. The fifth bookcase (which has a totem pole standing on top of it) contains a wide variety of notecard books and wearable books from The Library’s presentations starting in March of 2008. All of the Library’s “collection” are in works in the public domain.

At the West of Ireland Library our purpose is more specific than a public library's in real life might be, much as a legal or medical library has a specified focus. Our purpose is to honor the Celtic tradition of oral storytelling by the presentation in live voice of a wide variety of works of literature including those of Celtic origin. The objective is to promote exploration of genres and authors, encompassing works across the spectrum of traditional and contemporary literature. The Library uses Second Life to do what libraries have done since time immemorial. The method, in this case, is oral presentation in a communal environment. At no time are presented works passed off as creations of anyone other than the original authors, and there is no admission fee charged.

Could the WOI Library simply present nothing but works in the public domain? Certainly, there is a large body of works available that are in the public domain. Would this really serve our audiences? To focus exclusively on works written prior to 1923? Such uses as the WOI Library makes of copyrighted non-dramatic works are covered by Title 17 of the United States Code, which covers copyright statutes. As the WOI Charity Estate in SL has it’s organizational basis in the United States, it is subject to its laws. Of specific interest is Section 110: Limitations on exclusive rights: Exemption of certain performances and displays.

http://www.bitlaw.com/source/17usc/110.html

“It is the intention of copyright law to stimulate creativity for the enrichment of the general public. It attempts to do this by prohibiting use of another’s original works for personal profit. Such use would be defined as derivative and prohibited by copyright law. The West of Ireland Library (The Library) views the presentation of literary works as transformative rather than derivative. Such presentations feature works in a new way to persons that may not have previously accessed or encountered these works.”

For conversations on “transformative” versus “derivative” use of copyrighted materials:

http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/1340000334/post/1420024142.html

The entire text of the WOI Library's new policy is available at the library by clicking on the copyright poster over the Librarian's Desk. If you have any questions or information to share, feel free to contact Librarian Derry McMahon by notecard on the SL grid.

ALL ABOUT Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)

Edgar Allan Poe:
Author, Poet, Literary Critic, master of the macabre, the fantastical, the sentimental, the ironic, the comic. There are many sides to this prodigious and prolific American author, who died at the age of forty.

To learn more about Edgar Allan Poe, click on the links to visit these great online resources . . .

http://www.online-literature.com/poe/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Allan_Poe

http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/130

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/e/edgar_allan_poe.html

http://www.poemuseum.org/poes_life/index.html