Robert Barker/University Photography

Hirtle, Peter B.

Senior Policy Advisor

Peter Hirtle is a senior policy advisor in the Cornell University Library with a special mandate to address intellectual property issues.  He also serves as the selector for US and general history, genealogy, and information science.  Previously at Cornell, Hirtle served as Director of the Cornell Institute for Digital Collections and as the Associate Editor of D-Lib Magazine .  He is an archivist by training with an MA in History from Johns Hopkins and an MLS with a concentration in archival science from the University of Maryland.  Hirtle is a Fellow and Past President of the Society of American Archivists and is a member of its Working Group on Intellectual Property.  He was a member of the Commission on Preservation and Access/Research Library Group's Task Force on Digital Archiving and the Copyright Office’s Section 108 Study Group, and is a contributing author to the LibraryLaw.com blog.

research

research and scholarship focus

  • Copyright status of unpublished works
  • Library use of copyrighted works
  • Archival theory and practice
  • Digital preservaton

research areas

related websites

Cornell Copyright Information Center: http://copyright.cornell.edu

affiliations

administrative responsibilities

librarian in

teaching

teaching focus

At  Cornell:

Outside Cornell:

  • Copyright and Digitization (offered numerous times.  Next offering: 31 March in Albany for CDLC)
  • NEDCC Digital Directions (formally "School for Scanning").  Next offering is 27-29 May in San Diego.

service

current professional activities

Member of:

  • Association of Canadian Archivists
  • Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference
  • Society of American Archivists (member, Intellectual Property Working Group)

Previous SAA professional activities:

  • President/Vice-President, 2001-2003
  • SAA Council, 1996-1999; Executive Committee, 1998-1999
  • Committee on the Selection of SAA Fellows, 2003- 2008
  • A*Census Advisory Committee chair, 2003-2006
  • Program Committee, 1999-2000
  • Committee on Archival Information Exchange, 1992-5, chair, 1993-5
  • Science, Technology, and Health Care Roundtable coordinator, 1988-90
  • Manuscripts Section steering committee, 1993-6
  • Blue Ribbon Task Force on the Information Superhighway, 1994

Other previous professional activities:

  • Section 108 Study Group, Library of Congress/Copyright Office, 2005-2008
  • International Conference on the Preservation of Digital Objects (iPRES 2006) Planning and Program Committee, 2006
  • Editorial Advisor, RLG DigiNews, 2002-2007
  • Rockefeller Archives Center Governing Council, 2004-5
  • San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) "Methodologies for the Long-Term Preservation of and Access to Software-Dependent Electronic Records" Archival Advisory Group, 2000-2002
  • NISO/DLF/EDItEUR/PLS License Expression Working Group, 2005-2008
  • ACM Digital Libraries '00 Conference Program Committee, 2000
  • RLG/DLF Task Force on Policy & Practice for the Long-Term Retention of Digital Materials, 1999-2000
  • Consultant, New York Folklore Society, 1999-2000
  • National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage (NINCH) Working Group on Best Practices, 1999-2003
  • RLG Digital Archiving Task Force, 1997
  • RLG/CPA Task Force on Digital Archiving, 1994-96
  • Maryland State Advisory Council on Hereditary and Metabolic Disorders, chair, 1992-6Section 108 Study Group, Library of Congress/Copyright Office, 2005-2008
  • International Conference on the Preservation of Digital Objects (iPRES 2006) Planning and Program Committee, 2006
  • Editorial Advisor, RLG DigiNews, 2002-2007
  • Rockefeller Archives Center Governing Council, 2004-5
  • San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) "Methodologies for the Long-Term Preservation of and Access to Software-Dependent Electronic Records" Archival Advisory Group, 2000-2002
  • NISO/DLF/EDItEUR/PLS License Expression Working Group, 2005-2008
  • ACM Digital Libraries '00 Conference Program Committee, 2000
  • RLG/DLF Task Force on Policy & Practice for the Long-Term Retention of Digital Materials, 1999-2000
  • Consultant, New York Folklore Society, 1999-2000
  • National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage (NINCH) Working Group on Best Practices, 1999-2003
  • RLG Digital Archiving Task Force, 1997
  • RLG/CPA Task Force on Digital Archiving, 1994-96
  • Maryland State Advisory Council on Hereditary and Metabolic Disorders, chair, 1992-6

library liaison to

background

educational background

1985‑87:    M.L.S. College of Library and Information Science, University of Maryland

1977‑82:    Ph.D. candidate, History, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD.

1975‑77:    M.A., History, The Johns Hopkins University

1970-74:     B.A., cum laude, History, Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota

professional background

2002-2004:  Director for Instruction and Learning, Instruction, Research, and Information Services (IRIS), Cornell University Library
1996-2002:  Director, Co-Director, and Associate Director, Cornell Institute for Digital Collections
1999-2001:  Associate Editor, D-Lib Magazine
1993-1996: Coordinator, Electronic Public Access Initiatives, Policy and Planning Division, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD
1986-93:    Curator, Modern Manuscripts, National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD
1985‑86:    Archivist/Historian, Center for the History of Microbiology, University of Maryland‑Baltimore County, Catonsville, MD
1983‑84:    Assistant Professor, History, University of Alabama in Birmingham, Birmingham, AL
1980‑83:    Lecturer, Program in Values, Technology, Science, and Society, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
1980:          Library Specialist/Bibliographer, Green Library, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
1976‑79:    Teaching Assistant, History, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD

awards and distinctions

  •  Fellow, Society of American Archivists, 2001
  •  Surgeon General's Exemplary Service Award, 17 March 1989
  •  Johns Hopkins University Fellowship
  • Historic Deerfield, Mass. Internship
  • National Merit Scholarship

publications

selected publications (listing in progress)

 

“Removing All Restrictions: Cornell’s New Policy on Use of Public Domain Reproductions.” Research Library Issues: A Bimonthly Report from ARL, CNI, and SPARC, no. 266 (October 2009): 1–6.

Peter B. Hirtle, Emily Hudson, and Andrew T. Kenyon, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for Digitization for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Library, October, 2009.  Available in print at https://www.createspace.com/3405063 and for free download at: <http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1495365> and <http://hdl.handle.net/1813/14142>.

"The history and current state of digital preservation in the United States" in Elaine Westbrooks and Keith Jenkins, eds., Metadata and Digital Collections: A festschrift in honor of Tom Turner. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Library Press, 2009.  http://cip.cornell.edu/Turner 

"Copyright Renewal, Copyright Restoration, and the Difficulty of Determining Copyright Status"  D-Lib Magazine 14:7-8  (July/August 2008)  

"Copyright Keeps Open Archives and Digital Preservation Separate."  RLG DigiNews 11: 1 (15 April 2007)  

“Digital Access to Archival Works: Could 108(b) Be the Solution?” Copyright & Fair Use web site, Stanford University Libraries (24 Sept. 2006)

“Author Addenda: An Examination of Five Alternatives” D-Lib Magazine 12:11 (November 2006)

(with Anne R. Kenney, Ellie L. Buckley, Richard Entlich and Nancy Y. McGovern) E-Journal Archiving Metes and Bounds: A Survey of the Landscape.  Washington: Council on Library and Information Resources,  September 2006.

 “Orphan Works and Section 108 Updates,”  RLG DigiNews 10:4 (August 15, 2006)  

 “Research, Libraries, and Fair Use: The Gentlemen’s Agreement of 1935,” Journal of the Copyright Society of the USA 53:3-4 (Spring 2006 – Summer 2006): 545-601.  Preprint available.

“Adopting ‘Orphan Works’,” RLG DigiNews 9:2 (April 15, 2005)

 Review of Complete Copyright: An Everyday Guide for Librarians, by Carrie Russell; The Librarian's Copyright Companion by James S. Heller; and Copyright for Archivists and Users of Archives by Tim Padfield. American Archivist 68:1 (Spring/Summer 2005):161-4.

“Copyright term and the public domain in the United States,” Information Outlook, 8:11 (Nov, 2004): 26-33.

“The USA PATRIOT Act and Archivists,” NEA Newsletter 31:4 (October, 2004): 4-9.

“The Impact of the Librarian of Congress's Rulemaking on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act,” ” RLG DigiNews 7:6 (December 15, 2003)

“Digital Preservation and Copyright," Copyright & Fair Use web site, Stanford University Libraries (November 2003).  Reprinted in E-Business 5:2 (February, 2004): 58-64.

“Archives or Assets?” Society of American Archivists Presidential Address, 21 August 2003, Los Angeles, California, published in American Archivist  66:2 (Fall/Winter 2003).   

“The Impact Of Digitization On Special Collection Libraries,” Libraries & Culture 37:1 (Winter, 2002): 42-52.

"Unpublished Materials, New Technologies, And Copyright: Facilitating Scholarly Use.”  Journal of the Copyright Society 49:1 (Fall, 2002): 259-275.

“Government Records in the Digital World,” in Development of Digital Libraries: An American Perspective Deanna B. Marcum, editor. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2001.

Review of Elaine Svenonius, The Intellectual Foundation of Information Organization, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2000 in Portal: Libraries and the Academy 1:3 (July, 2001):358-9.

“American Medical Association” and “Index Medicus” in Marc Rothenberg, ed., The History of Science in the United States: An Encyclopedia. New York: Garland, 2001.

“Image Management Systems and Web Delivery” in Anne R. Kenney and Oya Y. Rieger, Moving Theory into Practice: Digital Imaging for Libraries and Archives.  Mountain View, California:  Research Libraries Group, 2000.  http://worldcat.org/oclc/44003953/viewonline

 “Archival Authenticity in a Digital Age,” in Authenticity in a Digital Environment.  Washington, D.C.: Council on Library and Information Resources, May, 2000.  Review of Diane Zorich, Introduction to Managing Digital Assets: Options for Cultural and Educational Organizations, Los Angeles, CA: Getty Trust Publications, 1999 in D-Lib Magazine 5:7/8 (July/August, 1999): .

“Recent Changes to the Copyright Law: Digital Millennium Copyright Act,” Archival Outlook March/April 1999: 6-7.

“Recent Changes to the Copyright Law: Copyright Term Extension,” Archival Outlook January/February, 1999, special insert.

(with Carol DeNatale) “Selecting a Digital Camera: the Cornell Museum Online Project” RLG DigiNews, 2:6 (15 December 1998)

"The National Archives and Electronic Access,” The Record: News from the National Archives and Records Administration 1:5 (May, 1995): 1, 27, 30, 38

“The National Archives on the Information Superhighway," The Record: News from the National Archives and Records Administration 1:3 (January, 1995): 6, 8

"Health Care Agencies and Foundations," in Joan Krizak, ed., Documenting the U.S. Health Care System, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994 (Winner of the Waldo Gifford Leland prize from the Society of American Archivists for excellence in archival writing, 1995)

"Indexing Structures," in Digital Imaging Technology for Preservation: Proceedings from an RLG Symposium held March 17 and 18, 1994, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. Mountain View, CA: Research Libraries Group, 1994. 

"Photoduplication," in The Encyclopedia of Library History, Wayne Wiegand, editor. New York: Garland, 1994.

"Surfing the Internet for the History of Medicine," Watermark: Newsletter of the Association of Librarians in the History of the Health Sciences, Fall, 1993

"The Discovery of PKU."  National PKU News 4:1 (Spring/Summer, 1992): 3.

Rapporteur, “Data Access and Sharing,” Data Management in Biomedical Research: report of a workshop, April 1990. (Washington: U.S. Public Health Service. Office of Health Planning and Evaluation and Office of Scientific Integrity Review, 1990): 92‑93.

"Documentation in the Federal Government for the History of Aids,” in AIDS and the Historian, edited by Victoria A. Harden and Guenter B. Risse (Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Health, 1991): 129‑138. 

"Historical Note: Atherton Seidell and the Photoduplication of Library Materials,” Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 40:6 (Nov. 1989):424-431.

"Atherton Seidell's Career in Chemistry" Capital Chemist  Sept. 1988. 

“Artificial Intelligence, Expert Systems, and Archival Automation," Provenance 5 (1987):76‑88.

In addition to the above publications, the following editorials appeared in D-Lib Magazine

 

talks and presentations

“The Changing Shape of Archives” panel.  Creating a Usable Past: Writers, Archives & Institutions.  8th Fleur Cowles Flair Symposium, Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas, 15 November 2008, Austin, Texas.

“What special collection librarians should learn from Google Books,” Rare Books and Manuscripts Section Preconference, Los Angeles, 25 June 2008. 

"Babies and Bathwater: Re-imagining Academic Libraries" (with Sarah Thomas), Thompson ISI Samuel Lazerow Memorial Lecture, Simmons College, Boston, MA, 16 Nov. 2007.

“Copyright Implications of Digital Archives,” American Association of Law Librarians, July, 2006, St. Louis, MO.

“Digital Preservation and Copyright,” New York State Higher Education Initiative (NYSHEI), June, 2006, New York, NY.

“Applying Copyright Law: An Archivist's Perspective” and “Structural Metadata for Digital Asset Management,” School for Scanning, 2001-2008.

“Digital Rights Management and Archivists,” Society of American Archivists, August, 2004, Boston, MA.

“Digital Preservation: The current state of play in North America,” Practical Experiences in Digital Preservation, The National Archives, 2-4 April, 2003, Kew, United Kingdom

“The Digitization of Archives in the United States,” Tsinghua University and the Chinese Archives Society, 23 September 2002, Beijing, China

“Digital Interdisciplinariousness,” closing plenary session, ECURE 2001: Preservation and Access for Electronic College and University Records, 12-13 October 2001, Phoenix, Arizona.

“The NINCH Best Practices Working Group,” NINCH Membership meeting, 5 December 2000, Charlottesville, Virginia

“Copyright for Archivists,” Society of Georgia Archivists, 10 November 2000, Athens, Georgia

“The Impact Of Digitization On Special Collection Libraries”.  Fleur Cowles Flair Symposium 2000, University of Texas, 3 November 2000, Austin, Texas.

 “Copyright for Archivists,” Mid‑Atlantic Regional Archives Conference, 20 May 2000, New Brunswick, N.J.

“Digital Technologies and Access at Cornell University,” Leadership Conference on Access to Special Collections, 1 March 2000, High Point, North Carolina.

Commentator for panels on “Information, Research, and Protection of and Limitations on Data and Databases” and “The Impact of Technological Change on the way in which Scholars, Educational Institutions, Libraries, and Archives, Deal with Intellectual Property” at the Interdisciplinary Conference on the Impact of Technological Change on the Creation, Dissemination, and Protection of Intellectual Property, The Ohio State University College of Law, Columbus Ohio, 10-12 February 2000.

“Who Has Access?  What Does It Mean?” National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage Copyright Town Meeting on the Public Domain, Chicago Historical Society, 11 January 2000, Chicago, Illinois.

“User Access to Digital Collections: The Cornell University Experience.” EVA `99: Electronic Imaging and the Visual Arts, 19 May 1999, New York, NY.

"The Archival Perspective on Digital Libraries," Western New York Library Resources Council invited meeting on Digital Libraries, 11 June 1998, Buffalo, NY

“The RLG/CPA Task Force on Digital Preservation: Progress and Next Steps,” Society of American Archivists Annual Meeting, 31 Aug. 1996, San Diego, CA

“Item Level Control and the Archival Record in the Electronic Age: The Archival Descriptive Perspective,” Society of American Archivists Annual Meeting, 29 Aug. 1996, San Diego, CA

“Introduction to the World Wide Web,” National Association of Government Archivists and Records Administrators, Washington, D.C., 18 July 1996

“Planning for Digital Archives,” Coalition for Networked Information, 26 March 1996, Washington, D.C.

“A Planning Study on Electronic Access to NARA Holdings,” Society of American Archivists Annual Meeting, 2 Sept. 1995, Washington, D.C.

"Preservation Standards and Modern Records Technology,” National Association of Government Archivists and Records Administrators, Salt Lake City, UT, 21 July 1994

"Optical Media and Digital Imaging: Strategies for Long-Term Access," 1994 Records Administration Conference, Washington, DC, 7 June 1994

"Archives on the Internet," Society of Southwest Archivists, El Paso, TX, 20 May 1994

"Future directions and needs for graduate and continuing archival education" [closing plenary session], Mid‑Atlantic Regional Archives Conference, Pittsburgh, PA, 8‑9 May 1992.

"Privacy in medical records and its implications for oral history," Society of American Archivists Annual Meeting, 2 Sept. 1990, Seattle, Washington.

"NUCMC on RLIN: A perspective end‑user's prospective."  Mid‑Atlantic Regional Archives Conference, Williamsburg, Virginia, 3‑5 November 1988.

linked articles