Monday, August 07, 2006
Exorcisin' vanity!
OK, so once in a great while, as an exercise in vanity, I click onto the college library Web site to see if anybody has my master's thesis checked out.
Holy stolen intellectual property! Look what it said when I just now checked!
Status: copy2 Lost - 07/25/2006
I'm dumbfounded. There's another copy in the library archives, but -- man!
Dr. ER said, "People steal (doctoral) dissertations all the time."
Thieves! People should "borrow" these kind of things the way I did! Check 'em out, take 'em to Kinko's and copy them. It costs about $30.
The real offense here is taking a work off the shelves for good. What an ugly tear in the thin veil of civilization that is a library.
--ER
Holy stolen intellectual property! Look what it said when I just now checked!
Status: copy2 Lost - 07/25/2006
I'm dumbfounded. There's another copy in the library archives, but -- man!
Dr. ER said, "People steal (doctoral) dissertations all the time."
Thieves! People should "borrow" these kind of things the way I did! Check 'em out, take 'em to Kinko's and copy them. It costs about $30.
The real offense here is taking a work off the shelves for good. What an ugly tear in the thin veil of civilization that is a library.
--ER
Comments:
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Unfortunately, there seem to be a lot of folks who just don't get the whole idea behind libraries--"borrowing" being such a difficult concept and all.
The date, of course, just indicates when someone noticed that the thesis had gone missing. There's no way of knowing how long it's actually been gone. But you might consider searching for articles related to your thesis published in the last year or so, just to make sure no one's plagiarising.
The good news is that someone did notice it was missing, which implies that someone was looking for it. Hopefully they were able to take a look at the archived copy.
The date, of course, just indicates when someone noticed that the thesis had gone missing. There's no way of knowing how long it's actually been gone. But you might consider searching for articles related to your thesis published in the last year or so, just to make sure no one's plagiarising.
The good news is that someone did notice it was missing, which implies that someone was looking for it. Hopefully they were able to take a look at the archived copy.
I have engaged a librarian in a discussion. She told me it could be a late return -- but it usually says "overdue" when you click on it. I'd never seen "lost" before.
I'll pay to have a new shelf copy made if I have to -- for vanity's sake, as well as scholarship's.
(I feel like Ross on "Friends," hangin' around where his paleontology diss. was shelved. :-) )
I'll pay to have a new shelf copy made if I have to -- for vanity's sake, as well as scholarship's.
(I feel like Ross on "Friends," hangin' around where his paleontology diss. was shelved. :-) )
If you want to make it available for scholarship, why not copyright it, and then permanently post it on the web in some way.
Yep, people will "steal" it for their own purposes that way, but the anti-fraud machines (such as the one that nailed the blond) will have access to it as well.
I can't tell you how many times I've seen my work with some other name on it. But the intent of the "work" is out there, even that way. Sometimes intent is more important than credit.
Take a chance, open it up to the public on the web.
Yep, people will "steal" it for their own purposes that way, but the anti-fraud machines (such as the one that nailed the blond) will have access to it as well.
I can't tell you how many times I've seen my work with some other name on it. But the intent of the "work" is out there, even that way. Sometimes intent is more important than credit.
Take a chance, open it up to the public on the web.
# posted by 
: 11:56 AM
: 11:56 AM
UPDATE:
Someone checked it out through Inter-Library Loan. It came due. The patron reported it lost. The library tagged it as such. Then, the patron found it, and the liberryan told me it is in the mail.
Interesting and weird. Had my vanity gland throbbed in a week or so instead of today, I'd never known any of this.
Drlobo: Because I want to see it published for real, that's why. In fact, I got an e-mail just NOW from Big Academic Press, acknowledging my plan to "broaden the scope" of it and resubmit. :-)
Someone checked it out through Inter-Library Loan. It came due. The patron reported it lost. The library tagged it as such. Then, the patron found it, and the liberryan told me it is in the mail.
Interesting and weird. Had my vanity gland throbbed in a week or so instead of today, I'd never known any of this.
Drlobo: Because I want to see it published for real, that's why. In fact, I got an e-mail just NOW from Big Academic Press, acknowledging my plan to "broaden the scope" of it and resubmit. :-)
Being published is good. Getting paid for being published is Good.
Break a leg dude.
Break a leg dude.
# posted by : 6:03 PM
: 6:03 PM
Congratulations on the publishing offer! I would hope that eventually there will be enough copies so that it won't dissapear completely.
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