Beyond the course pack: Putting copyrighted material online

PUBLISHERS HAVE LITTLE MOTIVATION TO grant free reprint permission for online course packs. Most such compilations are almost of necessity highly idiosyncratic. Moreover, the students who use them are unlikely to go out and buy the book from which they've read an excerpt. But there is another, more ambitious way to proceed.

Over the past three years, I have worked with several dozen faculty members across the country to put together a Web site to serve an entire academic field-modern American poetryand thus draw faculty members, undergraduates, graduate students, and members of the public. We now have several thousand visits to the site each week, and many of those visiting are faculty members or doctoral candidates who will either encourage libraries to purchase the books excerpted or purchase them themselves.

The idea for the site grew out of my experience editing Anthology of Modern American Poetry, published by Oxford University Press in 2000. I realized that people reading a poem about the Scottsboro case, sharecroppers in the South, or even the Vietnam War could use more background information than I could hope to provide in notes at the bottom of the page. Meanwhile, scholarly books with interesting comments about the poems were often out of print and unavailable. Newer book! of value would benefit from excerpting that could draw readers' attention to them.

All the publishers or authors we have contacted consider our Web site a form of free publicity. Indeed, we like to think of ourselves as partners helping to promote the books we excerpt. In most cases, for example, we eliminate footnotes, preferring to refer readers to the original book to obtain documentation. When we put encyclopedia entries online, we leave in cross-references to other articles and make it clear that readers should consult the original book to read those entries. When we excerpt full chapters, we often put the book's color jacket online to help increase readers' interest. We have a special section of our site devoted to links to publishers to help readers obtain further information or place orders. Heavily illustrated articles are often placed online without the illustrations, and visitors to the site are urged to seek out the book to see the illustrated version.

We have in short thought carefully about how Web publication can help what is in reality a declining market for scholarly books. It is clear from the way publishers have dealt with us that they, too, are increasingly viewing Web publication as a means of increasing sales. Three years ago, every publisher wanted a formal letter and a signed contract giving us reprint permission. Now, many accept a simple exchange of e-mail messages. Several have informally granted us blanket permission to excerpt from their books as long as we keep them informed about what we are doing.

My own view, and some publishers would agree, is that putting an entire book online will increase sales of the book itself It's the equivalent of bookstore browsing, since few people want to read a whole book online, and hundreds of pages of computer printouts make for a clumsy, inconvenient, and sometimes expensive alternative.

Meanwhile, we are offering students, faculty, and general readers a remarkable intellectual resource-many thousands of pages of critical commentary and historical background on modern American poetry. No individual could assemble all this material, and no one person could disseminate it in hard copy. The Web makes it possible to put a painting or a photograph referred to in a poem online. It makes it possible to trace decades of scholarly interpretation in one convenient place. With luck, our practical focus on interpreting individual poems will also persuade educated readers that humanities scholars do something worthwhile.

We have not paid any reprint fees. Indeed, we have no budget for that purpose. In fact, even modest reprint fees of $50 per excerpt would have required a six-figure budget. My labor is gratis. The students who scan materials and place them online are paid hourly from a grant provided to me by my campus. In addition to reprinting already published material, we frequently place previously unpublished essays online.

The poems discussed and analyzed are not on the Web site. They are either in the Oxford anthology or in other books. Putting large numbers of copyrighted poems, which count as complete works, online without paying a fee would be impossible. So the Web site is designed to supplement poetry collections, not replace them. So, too, with our excerpts; people who want the full context of a scholar's commentary need to consult the original books.

In urging people to think "beyond the course pack," I am recommending that they ask what sort of Web sites will serve a broad audience. Many other academic subfields would benefit from similar projects. Historians especially have already recognized that fact, as any experienced Web surfer will confirm. Meanwhile, such projects often require help from many people. Our site is actually a collection of sites devoted to individual poets, most of them assembled by other scholars around the country.

-CAPY NELSON

Standing Rules Governing the Annual Meeting

Regulations governing the annual meeting were first formulated by the Council and annual meeting in 1957. The regulations were last amended in November 2000.

I. Program

Pursuant to its responsibility under Article IV of the Constitution to "determine the time, place, and program of the annual meeting," the Council allocates time to Association business and other program items. Association business includes all items requiring the vote of the meeting.

II. Agenda

1. The Council shall approve an agenda for the business portion of the meeting.

2. At the commencement of the business portion of the meeting, the chair of the Agenda Committee shall recommend adoption of the agenda by the meeting.1

III. Rules of Procedure

1. The current edition of Robert's Rules of Order shall govern the proceedings of meetings of the Association in matters not covered in the Constitution, regulations, or rules specially adopted by the meeting.

2. All motions and amendments to or substitutions for parts of motions shall be written out and handed to the parliamentarian before a vote is taken.

3. No person shall speak longer than five minutes or more than twice on the same question, except with the consent of two-thirds of the delegates present.

4. The minutes of the annual meeting shall be submitted to the Executive Committee of the Council for approval.

5. A complaint against an academic institution, raised by an individual member from the floor of the annual meeting, will be referred to the general secretary for handling in accordance with Association policy and procedures.

IV. Resolutions

1. Resolutions are expressions of opinion by a meeting, not constituting legislative action of the Association. Resolutions concern subjects of general interest to the academic profession and the public.

2. The president of the Association shall appoint a Committee on Resolutions sufficiently in advance of each annual meeting to permit the names and addresses of the members of the committee to be published in Academe not fewer than sixty days in advance of the meeting.

3. Members, chapters, and conferences may propose resolutions to the Committee on Resolutions, either directly to a member or members of the committee, or through the general secretary. Proposed resolutions not received by May 1 may be moved from the floor if and only if they concern matters that have arisen subsequent to that date.

4. The Committee on Resolutions shall consider all resolutions proposed to it and shall submit recommended resolutions to the meeting. In the event that the committee decides not to submit a proposed resolution to the annual meeting, the proponent may appeal that decision to the annual meeting Agenda Committee, whose decision will be final. The Committee on Resolutions may initiate resolutions and may recommend modifications of the resolutions submitted to it.

5. Resolutions brought to the floor may be amended by the meeting if it so chooses.

V. Proposals

1. It a proposal is adopted by the annual meeting, and concurred in by the Council, the action it proposes becomes the action of the Association. Proposals concern the internal organization of the Association and the Association's activities.

2. Proposals by members, chapters, or conferences intended for submission to the annual meeting may be filed with the general secretary at any time prior to May 1. Copies of proposals received by that date will be distributed to chapters and conferences, and to those standing committees of the Association that are concerned with the topics involved. All such proposals will be placed on the agenda by the Agenda Committee before the Agenda Committee chair recommends adoption of the agenda by the annual meeting.

3. The Agenda Committee shall facilitate the orderly consideration of proposals, and shall make an equitable apportionment of available time for discussion and vote on proposals.

4. Any proposal not filed with the general secretary by May 1 may be brought to the floor (a) if it deals with a problem that arose subsequent to May 1, (bj if one member of the Agenda Committee concludes that the proposal should be considered by the annual meeting, or (cj if the annual meeting by a majority votes to entertain the proposal.

5. Debate on proposals shall proceed as follows. The first person to be recognized by the presiding officer will be the maker of the proposal. The second person will be the chair or other spokesperson of any committee to which the proposal has previously been referred. Thereafter the presiding officer will recognize as many persons as time permits, with consideration to the extent possible for spokespersons on different sides of the question.

6. Proposals brought to the floor may be amended by the meeting if it so chooses.

1. The Agenda Committee consists of (a) a vice president, Co) a member of the Council appointed by the president, and (c) the chair of the Assembly of State Conferences or his or her deputy.

AAUP Grievance Procedure

The following document was adopted by the Association's Council on November 11, 2000.

An individual who alleges that a professional staff member's handling of a matter involving that individual has been unsatisfactory may lodge a complaint with the general secretary.1 (Actions of Association deliberative bodies, elected leaders, committees, conferences, or chapters are not subject to the grievance process.) The complainant will set forth in writing what actions or matters are being grieved and the remedy sought, and shall provide supporting documentation for the grievance. The general secretary will promptly refer the complaint to another member of the staff for review, explaining to the individual that this is the first step in the grievance procedure.

If the complainant is dissatisfied with the result of the second staff member's review, the general secretary will respond to the matter directly. If the complainant alleges that the general secretary's response is also unsatisfactory (or if the complaint was initially lodged against the general secretary), the general secretary will refer the complaint, with available documentation, to the Grievance Committee of the Association. The complainant will be invited to supply any additional relevant documentation.

The Grievance Committee will conduct such inquiry as it deems warranted. It will afford the staff member or members whose actions are the object of the grievance an opportunity to respond. The committee will determine whether the grievance has merit. If the committee so finds, it will recommend appropriate remedies.

The Grievance Committee will submit its report to the president and/or, at its discretion, to the Council's Executive Committee. A copy will be sent to the general secretary. The president and/or the Executive Committee will determine what resulting action, if any, is appropriate. This will constitute the Association's final disposition of the grievance. The complainant, the general secretary, and the staff member or members concerned will be informed of the disposition of the grievance.

The Grievance Committee will consist of three members of the Council appointed by the president for staggered terms of three years.2 The president will designate the chair of the committee, who will normally serve a term of one year. 1. A chapter or a conference leader, or an individual acting for a group, may lodge a complaint on behalf of the chapter, conference, or group.

2. The president will appoint alternates for members who have an apparent conflict of interest in a particular case.

Cary Nelson, a member of Academe's advisory board, teaches at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Copyright American Association of University Professors Jan/Feb 2001
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