the larger framework of scholarly publishing and how it supports scholarship and society. How can HathiTrust think about new roles and different funding models to sustain the stewardship of intellectual resources? The academic in the ivory tower may be a romantic and outdated image—especially as academics can sit in their towers (well, cubicles) and communicate globally with ease. Strategies to Empower Authors John Wilkin is the University of Michigan Library’s Associate University Librarian for Library Information Technology and Executive Director of HathiTrust. Wilkin says that “one of the more gratifying parts of building HathiTrust is bringing together the monographic works of our own scholars, of the stars at our research institutions. As the initiative has gained recognition, faculty from universities around the world have sent in permissions forms to open their works. Being able to permit broad access to these works feels like the epitome of scholarly communication.” HathiTrust and its partners hope that research libraries will think about how they can leverage their relationships with their authors to do novel things in conjunction with their repositories, especially in the area of author reprints. HathiTrust tries to think creatively and identify opportunities across activities ideas sometimes come simply from sharing a cup of coffee. As individuals and institutions, librarians and libraries often maintain longstanding professional and personal relationships with current and retired faculty. Over time, personal contact with a faculty member can generate significant contributions—for example, gaining their permission to open all the content where they have the authority to do so. The experience of HathiTrust confirms that the cycle starts with and returns to authors, who can be newly empowered to exercise rights they do have and to be active participants in the global distribution, preservation, and access to their work as never before. 1 The agreement form is listed with other rights information on the HathiTrust Web site http://www.hathitrust.org/rights_management. 2 As a separate matter, Section 203 of the US Copyright Act provides for termination of transfers and licenses granted by the author—essentially, certain limited opportunities to “revert” transferred rights in very specific situations. Interestingly this provision is the focus of a recent Federal Register from the US Copyright Office. See the request for comments, “Gap in Termination Provisions Inquiry,” Federal Register 75, no. 59 (March 29, 2010): 15390–15391, http://www.copyright.gov/fedreg/. RLI 269 18 Opening Up Content in HathiTrust ( C O N T I N U E D ) APRIL 2010 RESEARCH LIBRARY ISSUES: A BIMONTHLY REPORT FROM ARL, CNI, AND SPARC