Bulbs for Garden Habitats

hornig@usadatanet.net hornig@usadatanet.net
Sat, 26 Mar 2005 11:02:18 PST
I'm a little puzzled by Jane McGrary's stance vis a vis Judy Glattstein
using material from Jane's published writings and postings to the PBS list.
As far as I know, anything published on the web (in a venue accessible to
the public) becomes part of the public domain, and can be freely quoted
(which is different from being presented a sone's own work - that would
still be plagiarism); and certainly other published writings may always be
quoted without the writer's permission, as long as the source is
acknowledged.  I do understand that in academic writing these quotes would
need to be formally footnoted - I was an academic myself for 13 years - but
in journalism, if that's the correct description of Judy's books, footnotes
are certainly not the norm.  The parallel I would use is that when someone
speaks at a public gathering, their words are commonly reproduced in the
press with attribution, but not with express permission  -that would only
be needed if the talk were "off the record", which PBS and published
writings clearly are not.

Thus, while I would agree that under the circumstances a bibliography
citing sources used, even if such sources are not cited individually in the
text, would have been a good thing, I really don't see where the express
permission of the source would in any of the cases mentioned have been
required, unless the source gave the information to Judy in an unpublished
format (private correspondence or unpublished letters, documents or
scholarship).

Ellen Hornig
Seneca Hill Perennials
Oswego NY USA
USDA zone 5


Original Message:
-----------------
From: Jane McGary janemcgary@earthlink.net
Date: Sat, 26 Mar 2005 09:50:23 -0800
To: pbs@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [pbs] Bulbs for Garden Habitats


I have received a review copy of Judy Glattstein's new book, "Bulbs for 
Garden Habitats" (Timber Press, 2005). The author is a garden journalist 
rather than bulb specialist (her particular interest is Hosta) and 
contacted me, and no doubt others, early in the writing of the book for 
information. Since I write under other people's names only when I'm paid to 
do so, I didn't respond in much detail, citing lack of time. Nonetheless, I 
find that the book contains numerous statements and even direct quotes, 
attributed to me by name, taken from my postings on this PBS forum and from 
my published writing, without my express permission. The book has no 
bibliography and the Acknowledgments don't mention PBS. The PBS is, 
however, among the organizations listed in the Sources section in the back 
matter -- with the now outdated website address.

Other active members of this forum are also quoted at length. I recognize 
some of the statements from the PBS forum archive. I would be interested to 
know the extent to which the author obtained permission to quote the 
archive and other material from our correspondents.

Jane McGary
Northwestern Oregon, USA
Editor, North American Rock Garden Society



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