On Kessinger, I am reliably informed that they do not hold copyrights, 
do not register their books, and in fact are selling nothing more than 
high-priced xerox copies in those shoddy bindings. The worrying trick 
being that some of the material they republish has actually been 
re-copyrighted, for example by Weiser or the like, who are supposed to 
have the right to publish and sell this stuff once they have paid the 
fees. But Kessinger works on the very edge of legality, arguing that 
because they are xeroxing material printed prior to the copyright date 
cut-off -- about 75 years, if memory serves, so anything before 1932 -- 
there is no copyright. I am told that Weiser looked into a big lawsuit 
against them, and found that they were unlikely to get enough money to 
pay the large legal fees.

So Kessinger is not a good example of really anything -- except how to 
make some money by skirting the edges of copyright law and basically 
ripping off your customers.

Yours,
Chris Lehrich

Daniel Harms wrote:
>
> >Even making all these excuses, I do find the behaviour of librarians 
> from copyright libraries downwards is reprehensible. For example. I 
> have not been able to find any Kessinger or Holmes >Publishing 
> material in the Library of Congress online catalogue. I have to get 
> publication dates (but generally not pagination) from Amazon! Much the 
> same would apply to fringe political >groups. There are very few 
> libraries that would make any attempt to collect, say, anarchist or 
> BNP literature.
>
> In the Library of Congress’ defense, many of their acquisitions come 
> through mandatory copyright deposit, so they can’t be held responsible 
> if a publisher doesn’t send in the required copies. My searches of the 
> copyright database have yet to turn up Kessinger as a copyright 
> holder, so I’m guessing they don’t.
>
> In general, if I want a bibliographic reference to a book, I go to 
> WorldCat, which covers almost all of the LoC holdings, those of many 
> other libraries in the US and abroad, and information provided by 
> vendors like Baker and Taylor:
>
> http://www.worldcat.org
>
> Thanks,
>
> Dan Harms
>
> Coordinator of Instruction Librarian
>
> SUNY Cortland Memorial Library
>
> (607) 753-4042
>
> *From:* Society for The Academic Study of Magic 
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] *On Behalf Of *Alan Pritchard
> *Sent:* Thursday, November 15, 2007 11:31 AM
> *To:* [log in to unmask]
> *Subject:* Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] Machen, et alia
>
> Coming in a bit late on this one. As an ex-librarian, I am not at all 
> surprised. It is one of those areas that librarians *do* steer away 
> from. In fact there was a paper read at Treadwells
>
> *February 2007 *
> Dangerous Books, Hidden Knowledge and Demons in Vellum
> The Keepers of Occult Books in Libraries Today
> Cecile Dubuis (University College London Library)
>
> Her talk was based on her Master thesis at UCL School of 
> Librarianship. Here is some more information:
> "Dangerous Books, Hidden Knowledge and Demons in Vellum: The Keepers 
> of Occult Books in Libraries
>
> Tonight's speaker undertook a mission to find out how much (and how) 
> libraries hinder people's access to the occult texts.
>
>
> A book could be a spiritual landmine, for reading an occult text could 
> ruin an innocent life… no? And are there not hidden secrets behind the 
> vellum binding – think /Da Vinci Code/, think /Rule of Four/, think 
> /Name of the Rose/. These are deep atavistic beliefs that operate 
> consciously or subconsciously in the minds of both the occultists and 
> the keepers of the books. Most occult texts are held in libraries, yet 
> their keepers the librarians are rarely occultists, and some are 
> actually afraid of the occult – and the doors are so often barred…
>
> Tonight's speaker went on a mission to find out how much (and how) 
> libraries hinder people's access to the occult texts in their 
> possession. Her field research aimed to do a few things: first, to try 
> to see how libraries reacted to an occultist trying to gain access to 
> occult books. She also (wearing her scholar's hat) interviewed 
> librarians about their attitudes to occult books and how they felt 
> about being custodians of such material. Her findings were surprising 
> at times, comforting at others and – once or twice – a bit horrifying. 
> This is a talk for anyone who has ever been awestruck in a library, 
> for anyone who has ever sought out the "occult section" of the stacks, 
> or has dreamt of having a private book collection.
>
> Cecile Dubuis, MA, is a librarian at University College London. A 
> lifelong lover of gothic literature, she is involved with the book 
> group Bibliogoth and is an active organiser for the Vampyre Connexion 
> and other London goth societies. Her 2004 dissertation, Libraries and 
> the Occult, involved work with The Warburg Institute, The Wellcome 
> Library, Battersea Public Library, the Library of Avalon and the 
> Theosophical Library"
>
> Her findings mimic my own when compiling my bibliography on alchemy 
> and subsequently
>
> Partly it is funding and attempting to fulfill general demands in a 
> time of cuts. When I was training (in 1965-66, there was a 
> well-established subject specialisation scheme in London & the S.E., 
> whereby public libraries would attempt better coverage in particualr 
> areas. I don't think that this exists any more.
>
> Partly, it is a general abhorrence of the concept of the occult, as 
> contrasted with mainstream religion.
>
> Partly, it is because publications on the occult often come from small 
> ephemeral publishing houses and it is difficult to learn about and 
> obtain. It is analogous with literary 'small magazines'.
>
> Even making all these excuses, I do find the behaviour of librarians 
> from copyright libraries downwards is reprehensible. For example. I 
> have not been able to find any Kessinger or Holmes Publishing material 
> in the Library of Congress online catalogue. I have to get publication 
> dates (but generally not pagination) from Amazon! Much the same would 
> apply to fringe political groups. There are very few libraries that 
> would make any attempt to collect, say, anarchist or BNP literature.
>
> IMO it is one of the jobs of librarian to reflect all shades of human 
> opinion and they are seriously falling down in this area. In 1962 Doug 
> Foskett published the 13-page pamphlet, /The Creed of a Librarian: No 
> Politics. No Religion. No Morals/ , still cited as a classic statement 
> of the role of the librarian in intellectual freedom matters
>
> Best wishes
> Alan Pritchard MPhil FCLIP MBCS
>
> ALCHEMY: a bibliography of English-language writings
> 2nd (Internet) edition at
> http://www.alchemy-bibliography.co.uk
>
> On Nov 14, 2007 8:33 PM, Thomas K. Johnson < [log in to unmask] 
> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
>
>     Hello, all.
>
>     At one point in my researches, I was seeking out novels that were
>     specifically from the late nineteenth century and that had occult
>     themes. Specifically, I was looking for the author J. W.
>     Brodie-Innes. When I asked the librarian here at UW why there was
>     nothing in the cardcatalogue, she stated that *those* kinds of
>     books wouldn't be something the library would be interested in
>     acquiring.
>
>     Granted, there are limited budgets for book acquisition, and I
>     understand this. But the disdain this librarian showed for either
>     the topic or the author was, I thought, odd. Is this a common
>     phenomenon in academic institutions, or is it more localized?
>
>     Tom Johnson
>     UW, Seattle
>
>
>
>
> -- 
> Best wishes
> Alan Pritchard MPhil FCLIP MBCS
> Tel: +44 (0)1202 417477
>

-- 
Christopher I. Lehrich
Assistant Professor of Religion
Associate Director, Division of Religious and Theological Studies
Boston University