Faculty-student Library of Congress research is published
Faculty | Oct 15, 2013 | Nicole Gesualdo
by Emily Raleigh (GSB ’16)
There is no denying that our world is going digital. The digital age continues to bring new ways to listen to music, talk to friends, watch television — even read a book. Now, we have e-readers, tablets, e-books and more. Publishing has not been spared the industry-spanning need to adapt.
By nature, we may not think about the implications that come with technological advancements. But for some industries, that adaptation is much easier said than done.
Have you ever thought, for example, about how technological developments in publishing have affected the Library of Congress and the U.S. Copyright Office?
Well, Professor Al Greco and nine Gabelli School students researched exactly how these governmental organizations have been grappling with the consequences.
Back in September 2011, the Library of Congress asked Dean Donna Rapaccioli, Professor Greco and Professor Robert Wharton to undertake this question as a research project. They brought in help from Gabelli School undergraduates: A nine-student team was established in a sophomore core Integrated Project class in December of that year.
“Teams were created to address substantive issues regarding copyright law, technology, accounting and the book publishing industry,” said Professor Greco.
In June 2012, at the annual meeting of the Society for Scholarly Publishing in Virginia, the faculty and student researchers presented their preliminary findings to people from the industry and the government. Fortunately, they’d had practice: They had done the same presentation two months prior at the Gabelli School’s Undergraduate Business Research Conference.
From their findings came a 124-page paper that was sent to the Library of Congress, so that directors there could use the research to make informed decisions about archiving electronic material in the future.
Today — October 15, 2013 — a 34-page version was published in the University of Toronto Press’s Journal of Scholarly Publishing, the authoritative voice of academic publishing. Along with Professor Greco, the nine Gabelli School students will be listed as co-authors. Congratulations to:
- Michael Artiles
- Christian Beaulieu
- Samantha Carey
- Madeline Danza
- Andrew Gatian
- Alexa Gavin
- Alexandra Jameson
- Adam McWilliams
- Kristen Samuelson
