Are Music Library Association audio reserve guidelines sufficient for SUL service?
Question
We are in the process of developing a digital audio service which will provide online access to copies of musical works used in teaching SU courses. Materials will either be owned by SU Library or by the teaching faculty member. Access will be restricted to SU users for the duration of the class. In general, we plan to follow the guidelines developed by the Music Library Association; see:
http://www.lib.jmu.edu/org/mla/guidelines/accepted%20guidelines/Digital%20Reserves.asp?node=2
Does adherence to these guidelines as our policy for this service provide safe enough harbor?
Response
If you apply the guidelines outlined on our SU Copyright site, and couple those outlined at the MLA site below (which have been widely vetted among sound archives), the library planning committee is on solid ground to move forward persuant to the restrictions outlined.
How these sound objects are eventually stored once digitized, where and for how long, assuming teaching need may slack off over time, are issues your group should begin to plan for at inception. Most of the same criteria for assessing long-term use apply as above, but long-term storage, in digital archival form, can raise new issues related copyright especially if future repositories are more open to public access.
Please let me know if SUCAC has answered your inquiry. Good luck.
