Access

What Users May Access the Thesauron Depository?

As a starting point, access will be limited to university-affiliated (or research institute-affiliated) users. These users will make their first contact with Thesauron from their institutional host in order to establish a user ID number from which they may subsequently gain access from both institutional and noninstitutional hosts (i.e., work or home).

When registering, the user will indicate a user category (e.g., professor, postdoctoral, graduate, undergraduate) and disciplines (research and teaching subject matter areas); this information will be relevant to the depository's catalog and tracking functions (see IIIC, VA, infra).

A second phase of the project would extend access to independent scholars who do not have institutional affiliations. At a later date, access to the depository might be expanded to the general public.

Conditions on Use

When registering, the user will encounter a series of screens setting forth the general conditions on using Thesauron. These conditions include agreement to abide by the terms and conditions (if any) that each author has imposed on the deposited works (e.g., the author permits browsing and personal copying, but not further copying or distribution). The user will also agree that in the event of a dispute

between the user and Thesauron, or between the user and a Thesauron author, any judicial proceeding will be before the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (or, if that court lacks subject matter jurisdiction, before the New York State Supreme Court) and will be governed by U.S. copyright law and New York law. (The choice of forum and of state law assumes that Thesauron will be established at Columbia University.)

How Will Users Know Thesauron's Holdings?

The depository will include an electronic catalog searchable by keyword or by Boolean logic. The catalog will also be organized in a scroll-through format employing LC subject headings. The catalog will be dynamic so as to reflect new submissions or revisions of material (and will also indicate when an author has deleted material from the depository).

The catalog will be dynamic in another way. Along the lines of SmartCILP (Current Index to Legal Periodicals) and similar products, it will regularly e-mail registered users with information about new submissions in the subject matter categories that the Thesauron user has requested.

How Will Users Access Material from the Thesauron Depository?

After finding the requested work's Thesauron number in the general on-line catalog or in the e-mailed updates, the registered user will click on the catalog listing or type in the Thesauron number to receive the work.

It is also possible to envision links to specific works in the depository from online course syllabi or other on-line reading lists.

In addition to the general conditions screens encountered on first registration with Thesauron, the terms and conditions (if any) pertinent to each work will appear on the initial screen prefacing each work. In order to access the rest of the document, the user will be obliged to click on a consent to those terms and conditions.