Copyright Rant and Mini Patience

Patience I am not a librarian. I wear that non-label with pride. I do, however, have a bone to pick regarding one such academic oriented subject.As unfair as it may seem, you have to pay copyright for items that you borrow from other institutions. It's not that bad. Hell, it's not that hard. We have a nice system that tracks it all for you. But I'm continually amazed at the number of libraries I talk to who either “interpret” the “guidelines” to their advantage or just blatantly break the law. These are major research institutes. My consolation is that I have good blackmail material should any of these folks irritate me. One phone call to the Copyright Clearance Center and I could ruin their budgets for quite a while. Muahahaha. I would go into details about how you can't have each of your branch libraries generate their own copyright lists and still not charge each other, but it would bore you all to tears. And copyright is nothing to cry over. I just don't understand how people can just make up their own rules. Or more specifically, I don't understand how people can then ask me to make our software help make up their own rules. Bah. Otherwise, the exciting life of library software goes on. We've developed new components to revolutionize and integrate three different pieces of software and help these poor librarians multi-task a little better. And theoretically, if testing goes well, it's all ahead of schedule. We, collectively as a company, rock. I went by the Mini dealership again yesterday. Talked to my very cool saleman, Ernest (as in the Importance of Being...). He actually convinced me to wait for the 2003 year model if I want one. I was floored. Car salesmen are supposed to say “what do I have to do to get you to buy this car today.” I even gave him some flack over not asking me that. But he said that I have to be less American and more European. Americans want things immediately and Europeans understand that great things take time. He said if I wait just a few months, I'll get what I really want and be much happier. So strange to get such sage advice from a dude who sells cars. I told him I'm not a very patient person when it comes to things I want. But that I trust him to not steer me wrong (wow, no pun intended). He said I can come visit my car whenever I want and drive it and if it's really the car for me, it will be here once the 2003's are ready. I resisted the urge to get mad at him because that's always my first reaction when someone says something smart and true that I didn't think of or say first. But then I grinned and told him he was right. And I told him I would be back to visit soon.