Sigmund Freud

I want to start producing a library for Sigmund Freud, based on the catalog produced by the Freud Museum. However, when I asked them about the idea earlier, they refused permission to use the list. Though I find it rather dubious that they could maintain a copyright over a listing of the contents of his library, should we honor their wishes?

Of course.

The London Freud Museum is unfortunately a bit anal-retentive. While it can refuse its blessings, it can't copyright facts, such as the fact that Freud owned a copy of such and such book. You can copyright a database but only for the parts that you added value to (such as comments and collecting Freud's notes).

So starting a LT legacy library for Sigmund Freud is to be encouraged and is fully supported by the London Freud Museum's mission statement that purports to promote Freud "for the inspiration, enjoyment and learning of all" - all, not a subset of those who are willing to jump through imaginary hoops. Apart from the fact that the legacy library would not be to their detriment but instead highlight their work.

The main roadblock to the Freud LT legacy is, however, the absence of a quality German language library database in LT (LT doesn't understand the character set the Austrian and German national libraries use), so it would require a huge number of manual entries.

Fortunately, there is another Freud Museum here in Vienna, in Berggasse 19 which hopefully will be a bit more enlightened towards people's interest in Freud's books. I am a bit time pressed at the moment, but toward summer time I think it would be possible to approach them with the idea.

>3 jcbrunner: - Quite so, but I'd rather not force the issue by using a list if they explicitly have asked us not to do so. If another list is found, and/or permission to use it is obtained, fine. But we work with lots of organizations around the world and I'd rather keep good relationships with them by building bridges, rather than pushing the envelope. owen1218, if you'd like me to approach the Museum on behalf of LT, I'll be happy to do so (leave me a profile comment with the relevant contact information, please).

Information about Freud's library:

http://www.freud.org.uk/archive/library/

Hello? What gives them the right to make these decisions?

>3 jcbrunner:

"LT doesn't understand the character set the Austrian and German national libraries use"

Really? I always thought it was a Z39.50 issue.

> 7: Oh, you can certainly use some German language sources.

The main problem is that on LT often titles / authors / publishers come out mangled when there are any diacritics or ligatures involved. So if you do import from such sources, you will always have to check (and often to edit) the results.

I am interested in the Freud library but see from the web link ( London museum) that a catalogue of his books has been published and I think it is probably that which must give copyright ownership. Available in the shop in London. I have visited the Freud house Museum in Vienna in Berg St and I recollect that when Freud fled to the UK in the late 1930s his books went with him. The Vienna museum is interesting because it was his home -. Note the information below from the website of the Vienna Museum with contact number of the librarian.

Sandra Sparber │ bibliothek@freud-museum.at │ T: +43-1- 319 15 96-19 │ F: +43-1- 317 02 79

Library materials may only be used on the premises, but there is possibility to borrow books
The Library of the Sigmund Freud Foundation collects literature on Sigmund Freud and on the theory, technique and history of psychoanalysis. Its inventory includes Sigmund Freud's works in first editions as well as German and international complete editions. A complete collection of Freud's pre-analytic works, which are not included in the Gesammelte Werke or Standard Edition, is also available – some of them in the form of original offprints with signed dedications by the author. Books from Freud's private library, which have been acquired through donations or purchases, are also to be found in the collection.

The library also offers a complete collection of the publications issued by the International Psychoanalytic Press (Internationaler Psychoanalytischer Verlag), founded by Sigmund Freud, as well as numerous publications by early psychoanalysts from the discipline's diverse schools. Finally, the library also focuses on works that form links between psychoanalysis and other disciplines such as literary criticism, cultural studies, gender studies, film theory, art history and musicology.

With an inventory of more then 35,000 volumes, the Library of the Sigmund Freud Foundation is the largest European library devoted to psychoanalysis.

>7 Katya0133: Z39.50 is a truly messed up "standard" where individual libraries inject their own stuff and character sets into it (It took LT three years to fix a particularity of the Swiss NEBIS data - which means that many old NEBIS Overcat entries are messed up).

Getting German sources into LT is mostly a function of LT management attention. Tim has acknowledged that Bavaria's 24 million records are there for the taking. The Austrian Union catalog produces a data dump in the Google (Books) format, so that could probably re-purposed if LT asked and wanted to.

>8 Nicole_VanK: Again, you can't copyright facts. LT would not be infringing if it virtually reconstituted Freud's library. LT would only be using the information not the (copyrighted) format of the book.

(Paging Larry Lessig, copyright was created to protect publishers (and authors) from being ripped off by other (copycat) publishers. It has been turned into hostage taking rent-seeking. Standing upon the shoulders of giants has been subverted by greedy dwarfs. The Freud library book is the perfect example to show how destructive for the total social welfare the current regime is. The 2006 book has a Amazon.de/uk sales rank around 2.500.000, so it is selling probably in the low double digits per year. Let us be generous and say it sells 100 copies a year at 20 EUR. Thus the author receives 100 * 20 * 0.8 (VAT) * 0.1 * 0.7 (tax rate) - 112 EUR per year net. ´For this probably exaggerated tiny amount, that in no way will be sufficient to compensate the author's project labor, society loses the free use of the book for (death + 70 years). The patent trade-off is much more beneficial to society ... )

>9 Africansky1: The LT Legacy project is looking for personal libraries not copying institutional library catalogs. What might work is Anna Freud's (incomplete) library which is housed at the Vienna Freud Museum.