Weekly readings - 17 November 2006

Author Addenda: An Examination of Five Alternatives. Peter B. Hirtle. D-Lib Magazine. November 2006.

When an author publishes a book or a paper, many publishers ask the author to transfer all copyrights in the work to the publisher. But that is not always to the author's advantage. One solution is the Author's Addendum. An addendum is a standardized legal document that modifies the publisher's agreement and allows the author to keep certain rights. The addendum may specify what rights the author does or does not have in areas such as:

· Author's Rights

· Author's Authorization Rights

· Use by the Author's Institution

· Institutional and Repository Rights

While the addendum may not be perfect, it can be an important tool so authors can retain the rights they want for themselves or their employing institutions. Sponsors should agree on a few standard addenda that all can use instead of issuing their own custom versions of the documents.

Broadcom claims first universal DVD chip. Dylan McGrath. EE Times. November 9, 2006.

Broadcom has introduced a single chip that supports both Blu-ray Disc and HD-DVD standards. The chip supports all profiles of both specifications. The universal device they have created supports all decoding, processing and memory functions of both specifications, including a number of other standards, such as MPEG-2, DVD-R, DVD-VR and audio CDs.

Colorado Alliance Digital Repository Project Approved. George Machovec. Press release. October 20, 2006.

The Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries has approved funding for a consortium-wide digital repository project. The project will allow the members to store, preserve and distribute digital objects such as images, text, audio, video, learning objects, and data sets. It will use open source utilities to speed up the development and will use the Fedora software. They consider Fedora to have “excellent long-term prospects” to be the best platform for the project. Each library will be able to have its own view of the system. Two staff will be added for the project, and the alliance is hoping to work with other libraries.

VHS, 30, dies of loneliness. Diane Garrett. Variety. November 14, 2006.

A clever eulogy for VHS tapes. Newer forms of media have taken the place of VHS, which has lasted for about 30 years. Studios have stopped manufacturing the tapes.