“The tenure process is intensive and demanding.” So say Richard Danner and Barbara Bintliff in the article that Steven B quotes in his Academic Freedom Quiz post (Richard A. Danner and Barbara Bintliff in Legal Reference Services Quarterly, V. 25 (4) 2006, pp. 17). And so say many in the faculty blogosophere in this [...]

This story in The New York Times is alarming – does anyone know more about it? Though libraries, CMS’s, and e-reserves are not mentioned, it appears to have widespread implications.
Three prominent academic publishers are suing Georgia State University, contending that the school is violating copyright laws by providing course reading material to students in [...]

Maybe I’m getting more removed from mainstream search. I know that some aspects of online searching can be complex, and depending on the uniqueness of some disciplinary databases (think about using financial screening tools in NetAdvantage or ValueLine Research Center) search can reach the extremes of complexity. But I would never have thought to associate [...]

SUNY press has announced an initiative to sell .pdf files of new books for only $20.00 for a title that costs $75.00 in hardcover. And you can browse the first two pages of every chapter absolutely free! What a daring initiative!
Sorry, but I’m undewhelmed. I totally support the mission of university presses, but it’s [...]

As a profession we’ve spent lots of time debating academic freedom and tenure for academic librarians. Do academic librarians need the protections of academic freedom? If not, why do they need tenure? If yes, why are some on the tenure track and not others? These are questions for which there are no easy answers. But [...]