Written by Joe Kraus, Science Librarian, University of Denver

I first became away of the term Digital Rights Management (DRM) about five years ago (http://stlq.info/sae/) when several engineering librarian discussion lists discussed the DRM restrictions that were being imposed by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). At the time, I knew how DRM was applied to music files and DVDs, but I hadn’t considered how DRM could be applied to PDFs, ePUB files and other text-based documents.

About 9 years ago, Karen Coyle gave a talk at the Library of Congress concerning DRM, and the talk was archived as a PDF. (http://www.kcoyle.net/drm_basics.pdf) This provides a good overview of the basics of DRM technology as of 2003. But, today, things are a little different. Now that more and more people are using ebooks to read digital texts (online and using ereaders), publishers are trying out a variety of ways to control use of their copyrighted content. These restrictions have greatly affected the way libraries and information centers provide access of licensed content to their patron base.

There are many who write about the negative impact of DRM technologies on the free exchange of ideas, but I find the work of Lawrence Lessig to be the most eloquent of the bunch. His book Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity (http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2750/free-culture) is great overview of the issues at stake. While this book came out about 6 years ago, Mr. Lessig continues to speak out on the rights of the common person to have greater access to scholarship and other content. (See http://fora.tv/2012/04/20/Ingredients_for_Innovation and http://www.casttv.com/video/ri74834/lawrence-lessig-the-architecture-for-access-to-scientific-knowledge-video for two examples.)

Publishers do have a right to make money from the books, journals and reports that they publish, but noted author Cory Doctorow wrote that “The death of DRM would be good news for readers, writers and publishers.” (http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/may/03/death-of-drm-good-news) The discussions concerning Digital Rights Management software between readers, authors, publishers and information centers will certainly continue. It will be interesting to see how this all shakes out in the next 5-10 years. Then again, maybe nothing will “shake out” in that time. No matter what happens, you can count on librarians and information specialists to advocate on behalf of the readers and users of published content.

RMSLA invites you to join us in your neck of the woods for the following Spring Dine Arounds:                

DU area in Denver – Thursday, March 22nd at 12:00 Noon
Spanky’s, 1800 E Evans Ave., Denver, CO 80210
RSVP to Joe Kraus

Salt Lake City (Holladay) – Thursday, March 22nd at 6:30 PM
Layla’s or Spice Bistro TBD
RSVP to Stephanie Earls or, Dona Christensen-Guinn

DTC – Friday, March 23rd at 12:00 Noon
The Tavern in the Tech Center
5336 DTC Blvd, Greenwood Village 80111
RSVP to Maura McGrath

Louisville – Tuesday, March 27th at 6:00 PM
Zucca, 808 Main St., Louisville, CO 80027
RSVP to Donna Hamilton

NW Denver – Friday, March 29th at 5:30 PM
Paxia, 4001 Tejon, Denver, CO 80211
RSVP to Mary Donahue

A year ago in January, in an effort to address several years of declining membership, SLA retained the services of James Kane, an expert on the science behind what makes people loyal, whether to another person, an organization or a cause.  In May of 2011, all interested chapters were invited to submit presentations for a pilot project on loyalty directed by Mr. Kane with a focus on the relationships between members and SLA and how members perceived the value of SLA.  Late in May, Mr. Kane announced that the Rocky Mountain, Minnesota, Southern California, DC/Maryland and Florida chapters had been selected for the pilot program.  After personally visiting each of the five chapters in August, Mr. Kane assigned a specific area of loyalty for each chapter to work on.  Our chapter is focusing on member relationships, Minnesota is exploring leadership relationships, Southern California has been looking at community relationships, the DC/Maryland chapter is assessing vendor relationships and the Florida chapter organized a workshop with James Kane called “Keep ‘Em Coming, Building Loyal Relationships With Those That Matter Most”.

This week at the SLA Leadership Conference, Past-President Julie Cavender will be sharing highlights from our chapter’s experience with the loyalty project and in particular what we learned about membership relationships.  Late last year, RMSLA conducted a limited member phone survey to 1) initiate a personal contact with members and 2) gain a better understanding of what members valued about belonging to RMSLA.  If you were contacted by an RMSLA volunteer for the survey you might have been asked questions like “What do you like about SLA and RMSLA?”, “What concerns do you have about your work?” “What do you need from SLA and RMSLA?” and “What are your career hopes and dreams?”  Through these conversations we learned things that members liked and did not like about our chapter.  We began to understand how connecting with one another on a personal level greatly increases the value we receive from belonging to RMSLA.

This year we are building on that knowledge by focusing on improving and enhancing RMSLA’s communication channels.  Shawn Thomas continues her wonderful work as RMSLA’s webmaster, managing all content posted to the website, which underwent a total redesign last year.   Kristin White, RMSLA’s newly appointed Social Media & Communications Chair, coordinates the RMSLA LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter accounts.  Past-President Julie Cavender posted a poll on the LinkedIn group page asking “Should RMSLA have a Rockies baseball game fundraiser this year?” So far, 15 people have responded (13 “yes” and 2 “no”).   We plan to continue posting occasional polls and will conduct mini-surveys throughout the year so that our members can communicate what they want and need from their membership.   And finally, to help you get to know RMSLA leaders and members, we are posting profiles on the website; President-Elect Rachel Bates Wilfahrt’s profile is up now.

The loyalty project does not end here. We plan on continually reaching out to our membership until we have reached ALL of you!

~ Co-written by Julie Cavender and Recca Larson

RMSLA is now accepting nominations for two awards that honor the contributions of chapter volunteers.

• The Horizon Award is given to recognize a new member who has made a significant contribution to the chapter in the past year.
  Download this form to nominate a rising star in our chapter.

• The Meritorious Achievement Award recognizes a member who has given significant service to the chapter over a long period of time.
  Download this form to nominate a deserving chapter veteran.

Return your completed nomination forms by February 1 to Laura Cullerton, Chair, RMSLA Awards Committee. The awards will be announced at the 2012 Alldredge Lecture and Business Meeting on February 8. Thanks also to committee members Maura McGrath and Dedre Henderson for helping put this year’s awards process together!

Please check your email for your personal link to the electronic ballot.

The candidates for 2012 are:

• President-Elect: Rachel Bates Wilfahrt
• Treasurer: Carol Stahlberg
• Director At Large: Connie Clem

Elections will close at 5:00 P.M. on Friday, December 23, 2011. We are also looking to appoint someone to fulfill the last year of a 2-year Director commitment. It’s a great opportunity to accomplish some cool things with the Chapter while working with fun people!

Thank you for your participation!