Re: Advice on breach

["Heather Morrison" <hmorrison@thealbertalibrary.ab.ca>]

Paul makes a good point about unintentional abuse.  How many libraries
have had individuals accidentally printing out whole books because they
couldn't figure out how to print just one page?  Not to mention several
copies, because they weren't sure where the printing was happening?  Even
if someone is doing this at home, it may be unintentional, and they could
be very upset to find that all their toner and computer paper has been
used up.

Heather Morrison
Knowledge Network Project Coordinator
The Alberta Library
Room 6-14, 7 Sir Winston Churchill Square
Edmonton, AB  T5J 2V5
hmorrison@thealbertalibrary.ab.ca
phone:  (780) 414-0805
fax:  (780) 414-0806

----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul Wrynn" <wrynnp01@library.med.nyu.edu>
To: <liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu>
Sent: Monday, October 30, 2000 7:50 PM
Subject: Re: Advice on breach

> My recommendation would be to state to the vendor what steps you will take
> to try to prevent this from happening again.  You could place advisories
> on your web pages where the links are, and you could include compliance
> discussion in library handouts and in classroom presnetations, if you do
> those.
>
> Other than that, these things are just going to happen and the vendor
> certainly should be aware there is little librarians can do to prevent the
> actual occurence if an individual is determined enough to carry it out.
>
> The best we can do is demonstrate that we make efforts to prevent abuse,
> especially unintentional abuses.
>
> Paul Wrynn
> Collection Development Librarian
> Frederick L. Ehrman Medical Library
> NYU School of Medicine
>
> At 06:46 PM 10/27/00 -0400, you wrote:
> >We were recently informed by a vendor that one of our users had downloaded
> >thousands of articles from one of the vendors titles in very short period
> >of time.  Wanting to comply, we identified the culprit and have taken
> >appropriate action. Still, the vendor asks us to provide them with an
> >assurance that such downloading will not take place again.
> >
> >This is our first breach ever. I am wondering, in material terms, how I
> >can confidently issue such an assurance when these things are impossible
> >to control? We can educate our users, but we can't stand over them while
> >they work. Would it not be more practical for the vendor to put into place
> >some kind of warning that pops up on the screen when someone reaches a
> >certain level of downloading? Aren't there products that do this now? I
> >think I heard that NetLibrary does this.
> >
> >Also, should the letter go out to the vendor under the name of the Dean of
> >Libraries, or would one from the humble office of the Head of Collection
> >Development or Acquisitions suffice? What is the protocol here?
> >
> >Any recommendations?
> >
> >Thanks,
> >
> >Helen Anderson
> >Head, Collection Development
> >River Campus Libraries
> >University of Rochester
> >Tel. 716-275-3302
> >e-mail handerson@rcl.lib.rochester.edu