Revised Western Heritage readers due Monday
Copyright issues caused delay
Joel Pavelski
Issue date: 9/24/09 Section: News
Students enrolled in the freshman core course The Western Heritage to 1600 will receive newly printed Western Heritage readers by next week, according to the publisher, Hillsdale College Press. Freshmen now carry piecemeal ring-bound pages or stacks of loose paper for reading material.
The new books will be delivered by Monday, Vice President of External Affairs Douglas Jeffrey said.
The readers were supposed to be finished before the fall 2009 semester, but were delayed because of copyright issues.
The revision process began in earnest during the 2007-2008 academic year, under the supervision of Associate Professors of History Bradley Birzer and David Stewart. Though the reader has been tweaked in the past, History Department Chairman Mark Kalthoff said in a previous interview with The Collegian that the revision project was the largest since the initial publication in 1998.
For any printed anthology, the editors must receive written copyright clearances for the documents or translations included in the volume. Even the Magna Carta, if in translation, belongs to someone from whom permission must be requested, Kalthoff said.
Because many of the copyright permissions requested for the Western Heritage reader were for translations with trans-Atlantic sources, the process for requesting permissions was "bogged down in bureaucratic administration," he said.
"What we really didn't want to do was go to press with a new book that had what was technically a copyright violation because it could put the college in a position of liability," Kalthoff said.
The department found an interim solution - single-time use, which is allowed by copyright law, and let the department print 400 copies of the book for use this semester.
Freshman Annie Taylor said she has made her way through the 149-page ring-bound reader, and her professor, Stewart, has printed and distributed loose-leaf copies of documents as needed.
When they actually arrive, the new readers will include new chapter introductions written by history department faculty and some added documents; the new reader includes selections from the Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle and the Roman Catilinarian conspiracy, for example.
The history department has periodically changed publishers for the volume, Kalthoff said. This is the first volume printed with Hillsdale College Press.
The department held several different weekend retreats to caucus on new material and assign writers to new segments. The weekend that led to the new chapter introductions was funded by cash prizes won from the Emily Daugherty Award for Teaching Excellence awarded to the de-partment, and held in Indiana at Pokagon State Park in the summer of 2008.
The new books will be delivered by Monday, Vice President of External Affairs Douglas Jeffrey said.
The readers were supposed to be finished before the fall 2009 semester, but were delayed because of copyright issues.
The revision process began in earnest during the 2007-2008 academic year, under the supervision of Associate Professors of History Bradley Birzer and David Stewart. Though the reader has been tweaked in the past, History Department Chairman Mark Kalthoff said in a previous interview with The Collegian that the revision project was the largest since the initial publication in 1998.
For any printed anthology, the editors must receive written copyright clearances for the documents or translations included in the volume. Even the Magna Carta, if in translation, belongs to someone from whom permission must be requested, Kalthoff said.
Because many of the copyright permissions requested for the Western Heritage reader were for translations with trans-Atlantic sources, the process for requesting permissions was "bogged down in bureaucratic administration," he said.
"What we really didn't want to do was go to press with a new book that had what was technically a copyright violation because it could put the college in a position of liability," Kalthoff said.
The department found an interim solution - single-time use, which is allowed by copyright law, and let the department print 400 copies of the book for use this semester.
Freshman Annie Taylor said she has made her way through the 149-page ring-bound reader, and her professor, Stewart, has printed and distributed loose-leaf copies of documents as needed.
When they actually arrive, the new readers will include new chapter introductions written by history department faculty and some added documents; the new reader includes selections from the Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle and the Roman Catilinarian conspiracy, for example.
The history department has periodically changed publishers for the volume, Kalthoff said. This is the first volume printed with Hillsdale College Press.
The department held several different weekend retreats to caucus on new material and assign writers to new segments. The weekend that led to the new chapter introductions was funded by cash prizes won from the Emily Daugherty Award for Teaching Excellence awarded to the de-partment, and held in Indiana at Pokagon State Park in the summer of 2008.
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