The Googlization of Everything

Kembrew McLeod broke this story and has been organizing widespread protest to it.

Here is the Chronicle of Higher Ed Story about it:

U. of Iowa Writing Students Revolt Against a Plan They Say Would Give Away Their Work on the Web

By ANDREA L. FOSTER

Graduate students in the University of Iowa's writing programs are up in arms. A new university procedure, they fear, will make their novels, plays, and other creative works—done as dissertations—freely available on the Web. That could undermine the commercial value and possibly embarrass the authors, they charge.

Some students, alumni, and professors in Iowa's nonfiction-writing program, playwrights' workshop, translation program, and the renowned writers' workshop typically try to market their theses—  in original or modified forms—to editors, agents, and publishers. If the manuscripts are already on the Web, no one will want to publish the works, the students say.

"It's not the university's place to throw out our writing to whoever wants to see it," said Nicholas A. Kowalczyk, a third-year student in Iowa's nonfiction-writing program, who is helping to organize student opposition to the new procedure.

'Open Access' for Theses

At the center of the conflict is a routine form that students and their faculty advisers sign for depositing students' theses with the Graduate College. Language added to the form this semester says that the University of Iowa Library will scan hard-copy theses and "make them open-access documents," which it defines as freely available over the Internet and retrievable "via search engines such as Google." It is not clear who authorized that clause.

Students can request to have Internet publishing delayed for two years, the form states, but it adds that the default assumption is that students want their theses disseminated online. All graduate students must sign the form, due in early April, in order to graduate.

Mr. Kowalczyk is also concerned that theses may contain sensitive personal information or other data that students have yet to verify for accuracy. His own thesis is about his family's history in Lorain, Ohio—west of Cleveland—and how the smaller city has become, he said, "a busted-out factory town."

"I haven't fact-checked the details," he said, explaining why he doesn't want his thesis circulated on the Web. "I want to get feedback on it."

He and nine other graduate students in the nonfiction-writing program sent an e-mail message this week to all university students on track to earn master-of-fine-arts degrees. The message urged students to send e-mail messages to the president of the university's Graduate Student Senate to complain about the new form.

Substitute Language

The message also recommended that students delete the section of the form dealing with open access and put in its place this language: "This work may not be reproduced in any electronic or new-media form without the express written consent of the author. All rights reserved."

The controversy has hit the blogosphere. James Hynes, a novelist who graduated from a writing program at Iowa, said on his blog on Tuesday that the new form alarmed him because creative works are fundamentally different from dissertations in the sciences or related fields.

"For those who are writing or have written scholarly dissertations, this may not be a bad thing," he wrote, "but for those of us who graduated from the writers' workshop or one of the other creative-writing programs at Iowa, it's pretty infuriating."

He said his thesis from the university was an early version of his first novel, The Wild Colonial Boy.

Miscommunication Blamed

Some Iowa professors who were concerned about the new form said on Wednesday that they were unclear exactly what the new policy was, who instituted it, and why. Loren D. Glass, director of the English department's graduate studies, said he planned to meet with some university administrators on Friday to clear up the confusion. It appeared, he said, that the form was the result of a miscommunication between officials of the Graduate College and the library.

The form says that the library has adopted an open-access policy and will scan hard-copy theses to make them available online. But Nancy L. Baker, the university librarian, said on Wednesday that the form misrepresented the library's position and that there was "some misunderstanding." She said someone from the Graduate College wrote the form, but she declined to comment further.

Said Mr. Glass: "The Graduate College said the library changed its policy. The library said it didn't change the policy."

Dale Eric Wurster, an associate dean at the Graduate College, who manages the activities of graduate faculty members and students, could not be reached for comment.

Other colleges, too, are apparently facing opposition from creative writing students over open-access publishing of theses, said David Fenza, executive director of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs, which is based at George Mason University.

He said the issue has come to a head on campuses within the last 18 months. Driving open-access policies at universities are a wish to free up library space—including space reserved for theses—for technology equipment, and a desire to tout a university's research output, said Mr. Fenza.

"College administrators don't always do what's in the best interest of students," he said.

New Zealand novelist Paula Morris writes:

Universities Gone Wild

In the past week, I've heard from contacts at both Victoria University in Wellington (where I did my MA in Creative Writing) and the University of Iowa (where I completed my MFA) that the universities want to publish creative theses online. In fact, in the case of Iowa, students won't be able to graduate without agreeing to this.

Like every other writer I've heard from about this issue, I'm opposed to this - and opposed to the high-handed manner in which the universities are acting.

Of course, I know that my MA thesis - the draft manuscript for my first novel, Queen of Beauty - is already available to the public in the Victoria University library. Similarly, my thesis for Iowa - a collection of short stories, which forms the basis of the book I'm currently working on for publication by Penguin - is available in the University of Iowa library. Someone could, in theory, photocopy either MS, but it would be cheaper for them to buy an actual copy of the book in question.

Electronic circulation is quite a different matter. If anyone in the world is able to access and download the MS to a computer, then they're essentially able to get either of these books free of charge. While neither thesis is a final draft, there's not a vast difference between draft and published product. There would be little reason for anyone to buy an actual copy of the book if the same content was available online.

Student writers will have to be much more circumspect. When Penguin agreed to publish my first book, I had the chance to work through it page-by-page with an editor, preparing it for publication. If I'd been conscious that the thesis with all its rough edges, meanderings, failed scenes, extra characters, ugly lines, etc, would be published online, I'm sure I would NOT have handed in so much work. I'd still be agonizing over every line! Student writers will have to waste time obsessing over legal issues - eg use of song lyrics, the names of places and characters, inadvertent plagiarism, the potential for defamation suits - rather than focusing on writing their MSS. Are these universities willing to accept the responsibilities and liabilities of a publisher?

I'm sure, also, that I would have submitted quite a different creative thesis at both places. If I had to sign up now for online publication by the university, would I think twice about including the complete novel in my MA thesis for Victoria? Absolutely. Would I submit the minimum number of pages for my MFA thesis for Iowa and possibly include old/already published rather than new work? Absolutely. This way, I would know that the WHOLE book was not available to the public until I sold it to a publisher - and readers could buy it in a book store.

By the way, the Graduate College at Iowa is refusing to bend on this, and within two weeks current MFA students will have to sign their "First Deposit" form or be prevented from graduating.

As Kembrew McLeod explains, this "First Deposit" form "contains brand new language that can be construed as a license that hands over student thesis publishing rights to the University of Iowa -- unless an embargo form is signed, and that embargo only lasts two years ... The language of this new Graduate College form would allow for MFA theses deposited this year to eventually be posted on Google Print, which is a reminder that we need good university policies regarding copyright protections and exceptions. I highly recommend UVA Prof. Siva Vaidhyanathan's blog The Googlization of Everything, for more info about the broader implications of the Google Print project."

If I was arriving at Victoria or Iowa now, and was forced to sign such an agreement, I would hand in a completely different creative thesis, just to protect my own future interests. The idea that a university would impose this kind of restriction on our creative freedom - and creative property - is astounding.