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| How To Search Copyright
Holdings Online by Darlene Bishop I recently found a book of inspirational stories that was listed as being in the public domain. Wanting to adapt and create an updated version of some of these stories, I had to determine if they were indeed public domain and free to use and adapt, or if there was, in fact, a copyright. Following my own link from WriteBusiness.com to the US Government Copyright Office didn't help a lick. As is typical of government publications, I couldn't understand their search instructions. Naive, as I am, and after following umpteen wild gooses around the Copyright Office site, I emailed them asking for help. They sent me the url to the site from which I had found the email address! That was a lot of help. So... still believing the best of even government workers, I emailed them AGAIN... told them I had tried the links they provided and found no help. I got pretty much the same reply, only with a note to follow the instructions. At this point, I realized I would have to figure this one out on my own (HEY! Even ditzy people catch on eventually!), so I started reading the instructions -- ugh! -- in all the help files on the Copyright site. And guess what... I figured it out! Now, you may be much quicker than me at following instructions, but I think I have more male hormones than many women and I live by the rule "When All Else Fails Read The Instructions!" So, actually *learning* from written instructions was a novel experience. In simple language (Heaven forbid the government could try this!), here is what I learned. * Go to the search facility of the Copyright Office. A couple of notes here... One, don't make the mistake I made of thinking that LOCIS (Library of Congress Information System) and the link to "More Information about the Library of Congress Online Services" are in any way related...they aren't. The Library of Congress Online Services lists LOC holdings ONLY. Not copyright holdings. The two are totally separate. (This was the first HUGE wild goose.) Two, you can click on the "LOCIS Help Guides" and even read the "LOCIS Quick Search Guide: COPYRIGHT INFORMATION (COHM, COHS, COHD)" -- I did -- but it won't help! The instructions are NOT the same as what comes up when you actually log onto LOCIS. * So...logon to LOCIS by clicking on the link at the bottom of the page "Connect to LOCIS using Telnet." * Type "1" (no quotes, of course) for "Copyright Information." * Select the file you need based on the document for which you're searching: * At any point you can type "Help" to learn what commands are available. In some places you can type "12" to return to the Main Menu (this doesn't work everywhere). * In essence, to search for a file, you enter "F" and the title. For example, to find "Gone With The Wind," type: * If you're unsure of a full title, you can type the first couple of words and get a listing of similar items. * When you're finished searching (or when all else fails and you can't make the other commands do what you want!), type "End" to quit the session. All in all, it's relatively simple when you finally get into it. But you have to read at least *some* of the instructions. Just in case you're wondering, the information I searched for was NOT listed, so the book truly is in the public domain. Look for my updated version soon! © 1999 by Darlene Bishop |
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