September 30, 1993

Contact: Craig D'Ooge (202) 707-9189

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First CD-ROMs Deposited at Library of Congress Under New Copyright Agreement

The Library of Congress today accepted the first CD-ROM publications to be deposited for copyright and public use at the Library of Congress under new model agreements negotiated and endorsed by the Library of Congress and members of the Information Industry Association (IIA), the National Federation of Abstracting and Information Services (NFAIS), and the Association of American Publishers (AAP).

The three CD-ROM publications deposited today are the AIDS Compact Library (Macmillan New Media), PsycINFO (American Psychological Association), and CD-Calculus (John Wiley & Sons).

Previously, CD-ROM publishers had been reluctant to deposit their copyrighted works at the Library, as required by the U.S. copyright law. This was because of concerns about physical security and protection against possible unauthorized duplication or dissemination.

After a year and a half of negotiations, the Library of Congress and the three information industry associations have endorsed four documents. The purpose of the documents is to induce prompt voluntary deposit of a significant number of works.

The documents establish ground rules for access by the public to the CD-ROMs that the Library acquires through copyright deposit and adds to its collections.

The parties have produced four documents. Two documents will be used by publishers to authorize different degrees of access for each CD-ROM deposited with the Library: a publisher may authorize the Library to offer a specific CD-ROM on a local area network for up to five simultaneous users in five different reading rooms, or the publisher may sign an alternate agreement that will allow access only at two different stand-alone workstations.

The third document is to be completed by Library of Congress patrons when downloading or copying material from a CD-ROM. This document acknowledges use of material for research purposes and prohibits wholesale downloading or further electronic dissemination of search results by the user.

The fourth document announces general Library policy regarding use of CD-ROMs.

According to Carol Risher, Vice President for Copyright of the Association of American Publishers, "This historic event serves as a model for cooperation between government and the private sector, as together we face the challenges and promises of new information technologies."

Initially, CD-ROMs deposited under the new agreements will be available for public use in the Machine Readable Collections Reading Room, Room G22 of the Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building. Reading room hours are Monday-Friday, 12 noon to 4 p.m.

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PR 93-120
9/28/93
ISSN 0731-3527