Notes on the ETD Speaker Series on Copyright with Gail McMillan

If you weren’t able to go Thursday night’s ETD Speaker Series on Copyright, presented by VT Director of Digital Library and Archives, Gail McMillan, I’d like to share with you my notes of the main points and resources that were highlighted during the presentation.

An overall important web page to keep in mind is the Graduate School’s “Degree Completion and Commencement” page: http://www.grads.vt.edu/academics/completion/. The “Graduation Requirements and Commencement Deadline” link will bring you to a timeline of graduation deadlines, Completion Checklists and Completion Guidelines. If you’re planning to graduate, it’s a great place to start!

Also on this page is a link to the “Electronic Thesis and Dissertation” page, a wiki created as a central guide to all things ETD. Here you will find a wide range of useful information.

From the wiki you can also jump to the “ETD for VT Authors” website: http://etd.vt.edu/. Here, you can click on the “Awards” tab to find out about both Virginia Tech and Non-VT awards for ETD’s. (Some are monetary!) The “Develop your ETD” tab contains information about formatting options and citations, provides templates and gives examples of well-formatted ETD’s. The “Graduate School” tab gives information about what the Grad School is looking for when they review your ETD. This topic will also be covered in the next ETD Speaker Series, “Graduate School Review of your ETD,” which takes place March 24th, 7:00-8:30pm (location TBA). The “Help” tab contains FAQ’s and contact information, and lastly, the “Submit an ETD” tab gives step-by-step instructions for submission, as well as a “Practice ETD Submission” link where you can actually go through a trial run of the entire process.

During this discussion, the focus was on information found under the “Copyright” tab (http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/copyright/cprtetd.html). Within this tab, the tab “© for Authors,” contains a layout of the fundamentals of copyright, including your rights as a copyright holder and restrictions on the use of copyrighted work. On a side note, Ms. McMillan recommended not giving up your entire copyright to a publisher because the publisher will then own your work. Instead, negotiate to share rights or to maintain the rights on the original work while giving the publisher rights to the specific version of the work that you created for that publication.

Along with protecting the rights to your own work, you must also take into consideration the use of copyrighted materials in your work. On the right side of the screen, you will see guidelines as to the use of copyrighted materials that do not require permission. One of these bullet points, fair use, has its own tab on the page. Fair use should be carefully considered before moving ahead with the inclusion of copyrighted work in your ETD.

Digital Library and Archives has created several tools to help determine fair use, including the VT Fair Use Analyzer tool and the Fair Use Checklist. The VT Fair Use Analyzer tool provides you with a list of simple questions: Answer them as accurately as possible and click the “Analyze Fair Use” button at the bottom of the page. The tool will determine whether you are in favor of or against fair use. Demonstrating that you have used the Analyzer tool by printing out your Fair Use Analysis Results for each fair use item used in your ETD will show that you have carefully considered fair use and will help to protect you and your ETD in the future.

If you determine that you will need permission to use an item, see “Help Getting Permission” on the bottom right of the “© for Authors” screen. Note that stating that the item will be for “sole use in a thesis/dissertation” may be helpful when obtaining permission.

On behalf of the GSSO, I would like to thank Gail McMillan for a wonderful, informative presentation, and for including the National Capital Region in the discussion.

~Jessica Todd, Graduate Student Services Coordinator, NVC

19th Annual National Capital Region Job Fair

19th Annual National Capital Region Job Fair

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

2:00pm – 6:00pm

Don't sit around waiting for that perfect job to land in your lap... Come to the 19th Annual National Capital Region Job Fair at the Northern Virginia Center, 7054 Haycock Road, Falls Church, VA (adjacent to the West Falls Church - VT/UVA Metro Station). More than 70 professional and high tech companies from Virginia, Maryland and DC will be recruiting for all levels and disciplines. No cost to attend and all job seekers are welcome! Parking is very limited so please take Metro to the West Falls Church VT/UVA Station (Orange Line)

Register to attend and submit your resume by March 5 by visiting http://www.ncrjobfair.org

Professional dress is required. Come early to enjoy the best opportunities to speak with recruiters! A complete list of participating companies may be found at http://www.dchokies.org/JobFairCompanies.aspx  

*Help! It has been a while since I have been to a job fair!* - Attend the "How to Make the Most of a Job Fair" Session at 1:00pm. Learn how to work the room, what to say to employers, and what they'll expect to hear from you!

Sponsored by the Virginia Tech Alumni Association - National Capital Region Chapter.