February
20, 2007
Copy shop
owner settles second copyright infringement suit
A Gainesville,
Florida copy shop owner accused for a second time of making illegal
copies of published materials and selling them to students at
the University of Florida has agreed to an out-of-court settlement
with six publishers. Kenneth R. Roberts, president of Custom Copies,
1202 NW 9th Ave., Gainesville, agreed to pay an undisclosed sum
representing unpaid royalties and damages, settling the case in
which he was alleged to have sold copyrighted materials without
authorization. This is the second copyright infringement lawsuit
filed against Roberts. In May 2003, he settled a suit that had
been brought against him by Elsevier, Inc., John Wiley & Sons,
Inc. and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in October
2002.
The most
recent suit against Roberts was filed in February 2006 in U.S.
District Court, by Elsevier, Inc., Pearson Education, Inc., John
Wiley & Sons, Inc., SAGE Publications, Inc., Harvard Business
School Publishing and Blackwell Publishing, Inc. The publishers
alleged that Custom Copies, which also did business as Orange
and Blue Textbooks, routinely duplicated and distributed copyrighted
materials in the form of print coursepacks (compilations of book
excerpts and articles from magazines and scholarly journals) without
obtaining copyright permission from the publishers.
"This case
shows that publishers take copyright seriously and will protect
their intellectual property against unauthorized use," said William
Strong, an attorney at Kotin, Crabtree & Strong, LLP, a Boston
law firm that represented the publishers. "Illegal copying compromises
the work of publishers, writers and researchers, and the law in
this area is very clear."
"This was
a significant case of repeat copyright infringement," said Allan
A. Ryan, Jr., Director of Intellectual Property, Harvard Business
School Publishing. "Publishers, authors and scholarly societies
suffer serious financial damage if copyrights are not respected.
In fact, everyone suffers, because revenues from the sale and
reuse of published materials support the creation of new works,
scholarly research and scientific developments."
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An update
on the accessibility of textbooks to students with disabilities
by Robert Martinengo
The issue
of whether students with disabilities can fully utilize instructional
materials normally presented in print format continues to gain
visibility. A major federal initiative in the K-12 arena, and
a variety of state efforts within higher-ed, point to an increasing
awareness that the problem faced by students with disabilities
is not being adequately addressed.
K-12
The US Department of Education has taken the initiative by defining
and promulgating a National Instructional Materials Accessibility
Standard (NIMAS), and encouraging educational agencies to incorporate
the NIMAS in textbook purchasing contracts. NIMAS files are to
be deposited in the National Instructional Materials Accessibility
Center (NIMAC), where they are withdrawn by the agency, or assigned
to a vendor for further conversion into formats such as Braille.
At the January,
2007 NIMAS Development Committee meeting in Orlando, Florida,
there was an announcement by a non-profit agency that provides
conversion services that they would not charge a conversion fee
to an educational agency if the agency assigned them the NIMAS
files. This non-profit would then make those files available to
their own members without further notification or compensation
to publishers, which prompted a few critical comments from a representative
of the Association of Educational Publishers.
Authors who
wish to learn more about the NIMAS should go to http://nimas.cast.org
for updates and background information.
Higher-Ed.
Without an overarching federal law, it is primarily state-led
efforts that have promoted the accessibility of college textbooks.
The original state legislation in California in 1999 has been
copied and extended by several other states since then. This has
led the Association of American Publishers to respond with their
own Alternate Formats Solutions Initiative, in which they hired
a consultant to report on strategies for tackling this problem
at a national level. At this time, the final report has not yet
been issued, but interested parties should check the AAP website
for their progress to date and further updates (www.publishers.org).
The move
towards more universally designed instructional materials that
would be equally effective for a student with a disability as
for one without is inextricably tied to the development of electronic
publishing, and emerging electronic publishing models. As the
traditional textbook comes under fire for high-cost, outdated
content, and all-around obsolescence, electronic content is expected
to save the day. However, there is much to be learned from the
efforts of the pioneers in the accessibility field, who have struggled
for years to make information more accessible to individuals with
disabilities. Care must be taken that electronic information technologies
close, rather than widen, the information gap for the disabled.
Relying upon non-profit and government agencies to provide accessible
materials will not lead to equality of information access and
education.
Robert
Martinengo has been converting textbooks into accessible formats
for 10 years. First as a Studio Director for Recording for the
Blind & Dyslexic, then with the California Community College
System, and currently with the University System of Georgia. He
recently completed a report for the Maryland Department of Disabilities
addressing the challenges faced by students with print disabilities
in accessing their instructional materials. He can be reached
at rmartinengo@gmail.com
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Attend
Grant Writing Workshop, TAA Conference for $200
Attend the
2007 TAA Pre-Conference Workshop on Grant Writing by Kenneth Henson,
distinguished professor of education at The Citadel, and author
of Grant Writing in Higher Education: A Step-by-Step Guide
on Thursday, June 21, and the 2007 TAA Conference on Friday and
Saturday, June 22 and 23, for only $200.
Learn how
to get inside grant proposal evaluators' heads from an experienced
grant writer who has written a string of grants ranging from a
few hundred dollars to more than a million dollars each. Kenneth
Henson's "Writing Grant Proposals" workshop is designed for beginning
writers and writers who have had a few proposals accepted and
wish to get ideas for new topics and develop skills needed to
increase the acceptance rate of their future proposals. Unlike
the many workshops that just talk about grant writing, this workshop
is all nuts and bolts: do this and expect these results.
This one-day,
six-hour workshop is packed with practical suggestions and tips
that can increase your acceptance rate. Discover how to give your
proposals that spark that makes them irresistible. Develop an
effective, bottom-line writing style from the author of more than
300 national publications, including thirty professional books,
four on writing for publications.
You will
examine successful proposals and will be shown the specific qualities
that made these proposals more attractive than the competition's.
You will also learn how to:
- Design
a budget that evaluators will perceive as honest and fair.
- Give your
proposals the same test that evaluators use to rank proposals.
One single tip will help you avoid the one mistake that causes
the most rejections.
- Identify
your own unique circumstances and use these to strengthen your
proposals.
- Turn limitations
into strengths.
Bring your ideas
for proposals to the workshop and receive suggestions for writing
a new proposal or strengthening an existing proposal. Each workshop
participant will receive a free copy of Henson's Grant Writing
in Higher Education, courtesy of TAA.
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Harris
resigns as TAA president-elect
TAA Vice
President Chris Harris resigned his role as president-elect of
the organization for health reasons. Harris would have ascended
to president of the TAA Council on July 1, 2007. Current TAA President
John Wakefield will serve an additional year, until the new vice
president, who will be elected this Spring, can take over as president.
Harris made his announcement on March 15 during a scheduled TAA
Council Executive Committee teleconference.
"TAA
has been a very important part of my life," said Harris.
"While I am a member of several professional organizations
TAA, and it members, have always beenÊspecial to me. This was
a very difficult decision to make. I know that TAA is well-served
by itsÊleadership, and I wish the organization the best inÊthe
future."
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Educational
advocate joins TAAF Board
Dr.
Alberto M. Ochoa |
Educational
advocate Dr. Alberto M. Ochoa, a professor in the Policy Studies
Department at San Diego State University, has joined the Text
and Academic Authors Foundation Board.
Ochoa said
that his work with the K-12 public school system in California,
coupled with his understanding of higher education as a professor
in the California State University System for 32 years, his involvement
in educational research associations that value faculty voice
and research, and his work with ethnically diverse school communities
in California in addressing the achievement gap between low-income
and middle and upper income school communities, are the strengths
he will bring as a member of the TAAF Board.
"I decided
to join the board because of the Foundation's immediate focus to
raise funds to support projects that benefit text and academic
authors and its study of the diversity of textbook authorship
in the United States," he said. "As a TAAF Board member, I hope
to contribute to the goal of encouraging more ethnically
and linguistically diverse scholars to write textbooks."
Ochoa, also
chair of the Department for Policy Studies in Language and Cross
Cultural Education, is a researcher and consultant to community
development agencies. His research interests include public equity,
school desegregation, language policy, critical pedagogy, student
achievement, and parental leadership. In the last ten years, he
has also been involved in developing processes for forecasting
the educational needs of school districts through demographic
trends, socio-political conditions, fiscal allocation of resources,
and educational reform trends.
Ochoa is
involved with teacher education programs promoting biliteracy
and multicultural inclusion in the Diversity Committees of Planned
Parenthood and United Way of San Diego County. He is one of a
core group of people coordinating the San Diego Latino Coalition
on Education. He is also a founding member and Chair of the Board
of Directors of the Parent Institute for Quality Education.
He has published
more than 50 articles on non-formal education, educational planning
and development, parental leadership, bilingual desegregation,
language policy and evaluation, and edited journals, offered seminars,
evaluated early childhood education programs, and developed advocacy
oriented programs.
"The addition
of Dr. Alberto Ochoa to the TAAF Board, along with the recent
addition of Dr. Molefi Kete Asante, deepens the Foundation's academic
resources necessary to take on the Foundation's massive diversity
project," said TAAF Executive Director Richard Hull.
"That project
aims, first, at a survey of current academic text authors in some
half dozen genre, or subject fields, to determine the representation
among them of individuals with the kinds of ethnic backgrounds
that enhance the authenticity and appeal to students of similar
backgrounds of textual materials. The diversity project then will
seek to rectify underrepresentation in the target ethnic groups
(African American, Hispanic American, and Native American) by
offering workshops on textbook writing and development to interested
scholars from those ethnic groups."
TAAF Board
Chair Michael Lennie echoes this appraisal: "Drs. Ochoa and Asante
are exceptionally accomplished scholars in their respective fields.
We will look to them for leadership and inspiration as we move
forward with these projects, to assist us in defining the need,
sampling the authors, understanding the results, and crafting
workshops that will address any discrepancies.
My feeling
is that with the addition of Alberto Ochoa and Molefi Kete Asante
to the TAAF Board, the Foundation has moved into a position
from which it can effect some meaningful change in public and
private education in the United States. The Diversity Project
and the School Textbook Adoption Project will benefit greatly
from their experience and respect in the educational community.
The Board will continue to seek outstanding individuals to assist
in its quest to provide a quality education and instructional
materials to children of all races and ethnicities."
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TAA re-issues
position statement on academic value of textbooks
TAA has re-issued
its position statement on the academic value of textbooks, originally
created in 1994 by by the association's Committee on Text
Authoring and Academic Values, chaired by L. Kathy Heilenman.
The statement
is a step-by-step analysis of fallacies sometimes cited to minimize
textbooks as scholarly works. The statement argues that text materials
belong in the academic award system of promotion and tenure. TAA
encourages textbook authors to point to this position statement
when they find their work denigrated as less than scholarly.
"Text materials
do not fit easily and exclusively under any of the three traditional
rubrics of research, teaching and service," the statement acknowledges.
"Instead, the production of text materials lies at the center
of the academic enterprise simultaneously embodying elements of
all three."
TAA plans
to appoint a committee at the June 2007 TAA Council meeting, to
determine if the statement needs to be revised and/or updated.
The statement
has been posted in the Members-Only section of the TAA website under
Member Documents: Click
here
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TAA Conference
keynoter Dan Heath interviewed on NPR
Listen to
a February 19, 2007 interview of TAA Conference Keynoter Dan Heath
and his brother Chip, authors of Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas
Survive and Others Die, by Rénee Montagne on National
Public Radio (NPR) where they briefly discuss the "curse
of knowledge" when writing about or sharing ideas and why
some ideas spread around the globe, while others are forgettable.
They say most people don't know how to frame their ideas in a
clear and compelling way (that stick)!
NPR: The
Secret Behind Why Ideas 'Stick'
Interview on www.npr.org: click
here
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IIL Publishing,
New York to raffle four books at TAA Conference
IIL Publishing,
New York will raffle four books at the 2007 TAA Conference in
Buffalo, NY, June 22-23. The four books are: This isn't Excel,
it's Magic! by Bob Umlas, The Power of Acknowledgement,
by Judith W. Umlas, Project Portfolio Management Tools &
Techniques, by Parvis F. Rad and Ginger Levin, and The
Zen Approach to Project Management: Working from your Center to
Balance Expectations and Performance, by George Pitagorsky.
They are also
providing a coupon for 25 percent off each their titles in the
Early Registration Goody Bags. For
info on registering: Click
here
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TAA Founder
Mike Keedy writing music textbook
by Kim Seidel
Mike
Keedy
TAA Founder |
TAA Founder
Mike Keedy, who has written or co-authored more than 50 mathematics
textbooks, many of which have been recognized as innovative and
groundbreaking, is currently in the process of writing a music
textbook.
Keedy has
been a singer most of his life, singing in school groups, in solo
competitions, concerts, and musical comedy. He has sung in barbershop
quartets and choruses and has been a member of the Barbershop
Harmony Society for 30 years. In recent years he became interested
in writing arrangements for barbershop harmony.
Although
Keedy has had no formal training in writing music, he discovered
that he has a talent for arranging barbershop harmony. He wanted
a textbook to help him develop that skill, but he couldn't find
one. The Barbershop Harmony Society has a manual for arranging,
but the book didn't provide him with what he needed to learn to
arrange. "It didn't guide me like a textbook should; I knew that
- I've written a few textbooks myself," Keedy says.
Without a
good textbook, Keedy found learning to write arrangements to be
a long and frustrating process. "I knew the world needed a textbook
for efforts like mine, so I decided to write one," he says. He
began putting together his latest textbook nearly two years ago.
He describes it as a short book with fewer than 100 pages and
many graphics.
Writing out
of his field of math, Keedy learned that it's vital for anyone
writing out of their field to consult with experts on the subject
about which they're writing. He has consulted with his grandson,
who has a Ph.D. in music, and his friends from the barbershop
society. "What I needed to have - besides being brash and brazen
enough to write a text out of my field of expertise - were people
to consult with," Keedy says.
Keedy founded
TAA in 1987 as the Textbook Authors Association, and now he hopes
to seek assistance from the organization he started. He would
like to speak with other music authors about how they accomplished
having their textbooks published and what some of the pitfalls
might be. TAA members may contact him at (863) 533-8222, or Byebyebloos@aol.com
Now 86 years
old, Keedy has resided in Bartow, Fla., for the past 14 years.
Along with his singing, composing and writing, he also enjoys
traveling in his motor home throughout the country, partially
escaping the hot Florida summers.
More on Mike
Keedy in the TAA 20th anniversary site: Click
here
Kim Seidel
is a freelance writer living in Onalaska, Wisconsin.
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'The Academic
Author' redesigned
The March
2007 issue of The Academic Author debuts a new design!Ê
The new design,
which includes an index, a new masthead, more photos and other
graphic elements, and a better mixture of articles for both textbook
and academic authors, is part of new Associate Executive Director
Kim Pawlak's overall redesign of the association's communication
pieces.Ê
The new design
was created by Tammy Seidick, TAA's webmaster and designer, and
Paula Heimbecker, TAA's production editor.Ê
Tell us what
you think! Send your comments to Kim Pawlak at kmpawlak@centurytel.net
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Stomp the
Comp
TAA has developed
an e-pamphlet that explains to faculty why they shouldn't sell
complimentary copies to book buyers. The e-pamphlet, titled "Stomp
the Comp," and its accompanying sign that faculty can post on
their doors to ward off book buyers, are available on the TAA
website as downloadable and printable PDFs.
"TAA has long
lamented the sale of complimentary copies," said TAA President
John Wakefield. "With this e-pamphlet, we are hoping to bring
the issue back to the forefront, by sharing valid reasons why
faculty should refrain from selling complimentary copies to book
buyers."
The selling
of complimentary copies, said Wakefield, has a detrimental effect
on textbook authors and publishers, who receive no profit from
these sales. Complimentary copy sales also contribute to the used
book problem, he said.
The e-pamphlet
outlines those reasons, and uses editorial-style cartoons that
depict a faculty member disposing of unwanted complimentary copies
the correct way (by donating them to a library or mailing them
back to the publisher) and the wrong way (by shipping them off
to a book reseller).
Click
to download the e-pamphlet and door sign
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TAA celebrates
its 20th anniversary
TAA is celebrating
its 20th anniversary in 2007 with the unveiling of a 20th anniversary
logo; the launch of a 20th anniversary website; and a dinner celebration
sponsored by the Text and Academic Authors Foundation on Thursday,
June 21, in Buffalo, NY, the evening before the association's
two-day conference. Visit the 20th anniversary website: Click
here
TAA is seeking
"Member Memories" and messages from members to founder Mike Keedy
and Ron Pynn, and photos from past conventions to place on the
new 20th anniversary website. Send your memories and messages
to kmpawlak@centurytel.net
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Call for
nominations to TAA Council
Three officer
positions and two Council positions will be opening up on the
TAA Council July 1, 2007. Any member of TAA is eligible to serve
on the TAA Council. Self-nominations are encouraged. The officer
positions include Vice President/President-elect, Secretary and
Treasurer. Officers serve two-year terms. Council members serve
three year terms.
TAA Council
members are required to attend two meetings per year, one in January
in St. Petersburg, Florida, and one the day prior to the association's
annual conference (held traditionally in late June or early July).
Travel and lodging expenses related to attending these meetings
is reimbursed. Officers also attend monthly teleconferences.
To nominate
yourself or a colleague for the TAA Council, email your nominations
to TEXT@tampabay.rr.com
or mail to TAA, P.O. Box 76477, St. Petersburg, FL 33734-6477.
Contact TAA if you have any questions: (727) 563-0020 or TEXT@tampabay.rr.com
Nominees must
send a 100-150 word bio, and a 100-150 word position statement with
their nominations. Deadline for completed nominations is March 1,
2007. Ballots are mailed to the membership March 15, 2007. April
15, 2007 is the deadline for receipt of ballots from members. Terms
begin July 1, 2007.
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TAA welcomes
new members
Quentin Bennett,
Linda Butler, Kiana Cox, Jeffrey Ratliff-Crain, Sharon D. Jenkins,
Vanessa Johnson, Chelsea R. Matthews, Cassandra McKay, Tamara
B. Springle, Greer Stevenson, Soren Usoroh, and Tyreasa Washington.
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Sustaining
members
The following
TAA members renewed at the Sustaining Member level: Robert Christopherson
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Contributing
members
The following
TAA members renewed at the Contributing Member level: David C.
Lay
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Busy TAA
People: Stan Gibilisco
In the fall
of 2006, McGraw-Hill published Stan Gibilisco's books, "Audio
Demystified" and "Alternative Energy Demystified." In June 2007,
his book, "Advanced Physics Demystified" should be in print. Gibilisco
is currently working on the 3rd edition of "Mastering Technical
Mathematics," tentatively scheduled for publication in November
2007.
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New conference
sponsor
IIL Publishing
New York will be providing a coupon for the conference goody bags
and will be raffling off two books at the conference. Visit the
IIL Publishing website at http://www.iil.com/
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Conference
registration now open!
To encourage
people to register for the 2007 TAA Conference on Academic Authoring
in Buffalo, NY, June 22-23, the association is offering some special
incentives.
- The first
50 people to register before May 1, 2007 will receive a TAA
logo coffee mug and a special "Goody Bag" filled with items
donated by sponsors, exhibitors and advertisers.
- Everyone
who registers before May 1, 2007 will receive $25 off their
conference registration (after May 1, 2007 conference registration
is $150).
- The first
three first-time conference registrations will receive FREE
conference registration. See registration
page for details.
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Second
trip to Niagara Falls added
We have added
a second trip to Niagara Falls on Saturday, June 23 following
the last conference session. The trip will include dinner at the
Hard Rock Cafe. Sign up for the trip when you register for the
conference. To learn more about the trip: Click
here
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Help promote
the 2007 Conference
Request copies
of TAA's Conference Promotional Postcard and send them out to
all the textbook and academic authors you know. Send your mailing
address and how many copies you'd like to kmpawlak@centurytel.net
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