New Report Shares Recommendations About Improving Technical Infrastructure at the U.S. Copyright Office
A new report (84 pages; PDF) from the U.S. Copyright Office
From NewsNet:
The Register of Copyrights has released a report from the Special Projects Team responsible for studying technology issues and business improvements related to the Copyright Office’s services. The report was delivered to the Register by the Copyright Office Chief Information Officer Doug Ament, who chaired the multi-year analysis. The effort was one of 10 areas of focus publicly announced by the Office in Priorities and Special Projects of the United States Copyright Office: 2011-2013.
The Office’s technology infrastructure impacts all of the Office’s key services, and is the single greatest factor in its ability to administer copyright registration, recordation services, and statutory licenses effectively. The report thus provides a number of recommendations that, if adopted, could significantly improve the Office’s operations and interactions with the public.
“I am grateful to the project team members and the stakeholders who responded to their inquiries, said Maria A. Pallante, Register of Copyrights. This report will be of great help as we work with the Congress, the Library and the public to create a twenty-first century Copyright Office.”
From the Introduction to the Report by U.S. Copyright Office CIO Doug Ament:
The project team performed significant research and analysis on important concepts and technologies that would optimize key services for customers and learned a great deal from our interviews with stakeholders throughout the copyright community. We also solicited written comments from the public.
While the report contains many recommendations, our current IT environment presents a substantial limitation and we will need to work carefully with the Library of Congress to reconcile enterprise solutions with existing infrastructure and architecture. It seems unlikely, if not impossible, that the Copyright Office can administer the law effectively into the future without technological changes that reflect the importance and growth of its mission.
Some of Topics and Issues Discussed in the Report Include:
- Challenges with the Existing Public Record
- Inadequacies of Current Copyright Data
- Deployment of Technologies
- Modernizing the Copyright Office
- Enhance Records
- Improve Data and Information
- Architecture
The report is available direct from the U.S. Copyright Office and is also embedded below.
Report and Recommendations of the Technical Upgrades Special Project Team by LJ’s infoDOCKET
Filed under: Data Files, Interviews, Libraries, News
About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.