[Link] Court Strikes Down Mandatory Deposit of Books for Library of Congress

People are often surprised to learn that there are two separate requirements under federal law related to submitting copies of works to the U.S. Copyright Office. First, when applying to register a copyright, copies must be submitted as part of the registration process. Second, the copyright owner of a work published in the United States is also generally required to submit one or more copies to the Copyright Office, even if they do not register the copyright. This separate requirement is known as “mandatory deposit.” While one set of copies can fulfill both the registration and mandatory deposit requirements, they are distinct legal obligations.

These copies are ultimately intended not for the Copyright Office, but for the Library of Congress, the Office’s parent agency. For decades, the Library has relied on mandatory deposit to maintain and grow its collections—currently estimated at over 175 million items. This past August, however, the future of this system was called into question when a federal appeals court held that the mandatory deposit requirement is unconstitutional as currently applied.

Small Publisher Challenges Deposit Demand

The lawsuit arose after the Copyright Office sent a “demand letter” to Valancourt Books, a small independent press that publishes rare and out-of-print fiction. The letter instructed Valancourt to deposit one complete copy of 341 of its books. Failure to do so, the Office explained, would make Valancourt liable for a fine of up to $250 per work and the total retail price of the copies demanded, as well as an additional fine of $2,500 for a willful and repeated failure to comply. Valancourt responded that it could not afford the cost of printing and shipping the books and requested that the Office withdraw its demand. After further discussion, the Office reduced its demand to 240 books but did not withdraw it altogether. Valancourt then filed suit, arguing that the mandatory deposit requirement violates the Constitution’s Takings Clause, which bars the government from appropriating property without just compensation.

Read the full article: https://authorsguild.org/news/court-strikes-down-mandatory-deposit-of-books-for-library-of-congress/

[Link] The Importance of Book Collecting: Five World Changing Reasons to Collect

by Amy Manikowski

Other than personal satisfaction and an intelligent-looking bookshelf, why collect? There are significant, even world-changing, reasons to invest in book collecting. Perhaps that is why the most wealthy, powerful, and educated people have been doing it for centuries. 

Book Collecting Decides What Goes Down In History

After his father died in 1757, Thomas Jefferson inherited the library of his father’s Shadwell Plantation. When that plantation house burned down in 1770, Jefferson mourned the loss of the books most of all. When he built his historic new home, Monticello, Jefferson amassed an even more impressive collection of nearly 10,000 books. After the British burned the Congressional Library in Washington during the War of 1812, Jefferson sold over 6,000 volumes from his collection to the Government, re-establishing the Library of Congress. 

What Jefferson had chosen to collect and care for over the years were the books the Congress of the United States would use as a reference while establishing the laws of the newly founded country. Today, the Library of Congress is the largest library in the World.

Collecting Books Aids in Preservation 

By buying and caring for books you love, you are maintaining them for future generations of collectors, buyers, and bibliophiles. Condition is vital in the trade of books, and a lovingly handled collection ensures that the texts will be available for the next crop of bibliophiles. 

Books, by nature, are made up of materials that deteriorate – paper, leather, glue. Left alone, the ink and ideas on the pages quickly fade into history. But the ideas of the past represent human truths and concrete history that are important to save. Without books, what would we know about the Roman Empire, religion, The Renaissance, or the World Wars? 

Read the full article: https://www.biblio.com/blog/2022/08/the-importance-of-book-collecting-five-world-changing-reasons-to-collect/

[Link] Library of Congress Has Digitized 100 Rare and Classic Children’s Books

By Emily Petsko

One hundred rare and vintage children’s books can now be read online for free via the Library of Congress’s website, according to The New York Times. The titles, all of which were published at least a century ago, were digitized in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the first national Children’s Book Week.

“Some of these books are hundreds of years old and no child will ever see them except through a glass case, so it is a way to get these books into the hands of children,” Jacqueline Coleburn, the library’s rare book cataloger, told the newspaper.

There are plenty of recognizable titles, including early versions of Humpty Dumpty, Mother Goose in Prose, Grimm’s Animal Stories, Red Riding Hood, The Secret Garden, Stories from Hans Andersen, The Story of the Three Little Pigs, and more. All of the books can be viewed as downloadable PDFs or in a text-only format.

Read the full article: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/582719/library-of-congress-digitized-100-rare-childrens-books

Library of Congress to preserve and restore pulp-fiction