Respone to: Librarians and their institutional attorneys

[Lorraine Busby <lbusby@uwo.ca>]

Hello Ann,

You ask an interesting question as I am on a first name basis 
with General Counsel!

Originally I came to know him because of the divine inc. (in 
Canada)/RoweCom collapse.  We were tipped off to irregularities 
prior to any information hitting the listservs.  I was working in 
the background with a number of institutional people in what 
turned out to be fruitless efforts to get our money back or 
orders in place.  Immediately after ceasing business, the lawyer 
went with me to the OLA (Ontario Library Association) Conference 
and spoke at a special session.

> From there I consulted him a couple of months ago because a 
company we do not do use for our serial orders canceled over 
1,300 of our journal subscriptions.  The serial orders are 
legitimate ones that have been placed with the two serial vendors 
that have our business. Unfortunately the publishers did not 
understand this and many of them canceled legitimate orders. 
The "guilty" company kept insisting they did nothing wrong.  The 
problem appears to be a computer glitch and my institution 
appears to be the only library affected by this glitch. 
Nonetheless we have significant work and disruption (and continue 
to have lingering problems).  And the company that originated the 
cancellations keeps insisting on innocence despite being copied 
on the cancellation forms that have their company name and logo. 
Our lawyer was planning on writing to express concerns but due to 
other issues this did not happen.

I also consulted the same lawyer on public performance rights and 
a potential site license for the campus.  Colleagues are 
currently consulting him on copyright issues.  I know that he is 
involved with colleagues on intellectual property issues but I 
don't know the specifics.  And last, but not least, he is 
providing me with a one page summary of "When to Call a Lawyer" 
for the graduate level library science course I am teaching on 
Managing Vendor Relations.

I would be interested in other responses as well.

Lorraine Busby
Associate University Librarian, Information Resources
University of Western Ontario
London, Ontario N6A 3K7
Canada