The Library Copyright Alliance (LCA) has released a statement stating concern over the Authors Guild's decision to file a lawsuit against HathiTrust and its research library partners. According to LCA, the case has no merit, and completely disregards the rights of libraries and their users under the law, especially fair use.
The HathiTrust and its partners have assembled a digital resource that will ensure secure, long-term preservation of nearly 10 million volumes held in member library collections. The majority of these works are not available commercially and will disappear completely if not for library stewardship, it is claimed. LCA applauds the modest steps HathiTrust and its partners have taken to foster those 'orphan' works whose owners have abandoned them to library care. HathiTrust is seen to add significant value to library collections in support of teaching, research and learning, while respecting the law. It is deplorable that eight authors and three special interest groups are trying to dismantle this resource out of a misplaced fear of the digital future, LCA has stated.
A PDF of this statement is available online at http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/announce_lca-agvhathitrust_14sept11.pdf
The LCA consists of three major library associations - the American Library Association, the Association of Research Libraries and the Association of College and Research Libraries. These three associations collectively represent over 300,000 information professionals and thousands of libraries of all kinds throughout the US and Canada.
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