Blogs

December is just around the corner. I think I might be in trouble.

Question: How can our office utilize social media to build community and enhance connections with students?

I was outside yesterday, enjoying some early fall weather after dinner with my son. I was pushing him on the swing, doing exaggerated “karate” moves and noises whenever I pushed him. He loved it and was giggling uncontrollably. The more he laughed, the more ridiculous I tried to make my moves. And in that moment, I realized something: I’m having fun, too.

A recent NY Times article by Cal Newport caught my eye. Entitled “Follow a Career Passion? Let it Follow You,” it hinted at an interesting take on career decisions.

When the Supreme Court heard arguments in Abigail Fisher's suit against the University of Texas last week, the focus was on the right of a public university to use affirmative action to ensure a "critical mass" of diversity among students. There is another aspect of this case, though, that warrants consideration, though probably not a SCOTUS decision.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about who I write for.

In April of 2001 I began working in the position from which I now write, Director of Information Technology Policy at Cornell. As a law student, I had elected to take a course in intellectual property. Most of my classmates had engineering degrees and were headed for patent law as a career. I was another "Eng." major, English Literature, and wanted to know why publishers of the J.D. Salinger biography had pulled it before it hit the shelves. Turns out, the author had included full texts of letters Salinger had written a long-term lover. The author had access to the letters, but she did not have the copyright in them. A fair use defense would not have sufficed under the circumstances. Consequently, the publishers removed the letters before publication.

When there’s not a lot of good news around, it was uplifting to check Twitter late last night after a full day and find out that a federal judge has upheld fair use in an important case. Judge Harold Baer denied the Authors Guild et al’s motion for summary judgment (making quite a hash of their arguments in the process) but affirmed that what the Hathi Trust is doing is legal.