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gwern comments on LessWrong Help Desk - free paper downloads and more (2014) - Less Wrong Discussion

30 Post author: jsalvatier 16 January 2014 05:51AM

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Comment author: gwern 01 December 2015 03:54:12PM 0 points [-]

Thanks. As far as the Todd dissertation goes, I know someone who can request it for me and I've asked them, so hopefully! (I really want it since it seems to be the most comprehensive set of experiments ever done on catnip and any analysis of mine would be crippled without it.)

Comment author: Anders_H 03 December 2015 04:32:06PM *  3 points [-]

I got the following e-mail from the Harvard Library today:

A request you have placed:

Title: The catnip response /by Neil Bowman Todd. The catnip response /by Neil Bowman Todd. Na Volume / issue: / Date: 1963 Pages: All Article Author:
Article Title: Na ISSN:

TN: 4621933 has been cancelled by the Resource Sharing staff for the following reason:

Scan&Deliver: Exceeds copyright: more than 10% of the work or issue

An entire item cannot be scanned in its entirety due to copyright law. You may be able to obtain a full scan for a fee >from Imaging Services: http://library.harvard.edu/university-archives/using-the-collections/reproductions#Copies-of->Theses,-Dissertations,-Prize-Papers

Read more information about the Scan&Deliver service here: http://lib.harvard.edu/scan-deliver If you have a question about this cancelled item, please respond directly to this email with the Transaction Number >4621933.

Thank you,

Harvard Library Resource Sharing - Countway Library

I am not sure what is going on here: Since it is a Harvard thesis, they presumably hold the copyright themselves. I know they will make my own thesis available for free after a one-year embargo. This seems more like an excuse to not have to scan it manually

Comment author: gwern 03 December 2015 04:43:23PM *  1 point [-]

Ouch. That is weird. Perhaps there's something historical going on where they used to let Harvard students keep their own copyright but a few decades ago changed it to demand copyright, which is why they can't scan the entirety of an old thesis like Todd's. Hm. You could try replying and asking why they can't scan a Harvard thesis given your personal experience.

If that doesn't work and the other guy can't help, I wonder what I could do. Leaving that thesis out is a really big gap in the literature... Going to Harvard physically with a scanner is not an option since I don't know if they would even lend it out of the stacks to me, much less when I'll ever be in Boston again. In an instance of rather bad timing on my part, it turns out Todd died just last year so I can't simply email him and ask him to release it under CC-BY-SA or something and then the Harvard people could be told they have copyright clearance; his wife Joyce is still around, though, so I could try asking her to license the thesis.

Perhaps you could ask the scanners what they would accept as adequate proof of copyright safety, such as some sort of document signed by Joyce? (No point in bothering her if it wouldn't get them to unlock the thesis, after all.)

Comment author: btrettel 03 December 2015 06:22:20PM *  2 points [-]

In my experience, the actual reason is probably not copyright, as was suggested. The ILL software likely has a few canned responses, and "this is too big, we don't want to scan it" likely rounds to the reason received. I've also had a librarian refuse to scan a relatively short document for "copyright" reasons, despite the document being in the public domain, though not obviously so.

Comment author: gwern 03 December 2015 07:22:07PM 0 points [-]

I hope that's the explanation and a little pushback will motivate them into scanning it.

Comment author: btrettel 03 December 2015 10:22:17PM *  1 point [-]

It's worth asking if they'll scan it again, but I'm fairly confident they would continue to refuse to scan it even if there were no copyright issues. My recommendation might be asking someone else to scan the entire dissertation on their own. The catalog record indicates the dissertation has 61 pages, which is totally doable.

On a side note, I wish there were a more formal way to exchange favors with regard to locating documents like this. Many documents are basically inaccessible because they are in libraries which won't provide scans. A website where you exchange credits of some sort would be really nice.

Incidentally, HathiTrust has it, but it's not available for download. In addition to Harvard, Cornell has a copy as well. Might be worth asking someone at Cornell if Harvard is a dead end.

Comment author: Anders_H 02 December 2015 04:47:06PM 0 points [-]

I've requested the Todd dissertation from the scan and deliver link. The processing time is around 4 days.

Comment author: gwern 02 December 2015 05:46:39PM 0 points [-]

Thanks. I hope yours and the other guy's request don't interfere or wind up wasting someone's time; hopefully the Harvard system is smart enough that whoever's request gets filled first for a scan will result in the second person immediately getting a copy, in which case no harm done.

Comment author: Anders_H 02 December 2015 06:16:21PM 0 points [-]

Yes, sorry about duplicating your request. I sent my request in response to Vincent`s earlier post, I didn't realize you already had someone on it.

Comment author: gwern 12 December 2015 07:39:44PM 0 points [-]

They managed to get a physical copy and scan it, so no harm done.

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