Press Roundup: Mellen Press Libel Lawsuits vs. Librarian and McMaster University | LJ INFOdocket →

There has been a lot of coverage in the past week regarding two lawsuits filed by Edwin Mellen Press that names Dale Askey, Associate University Librarian, Library & Learning Technologies at McMaster University and McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario as defendants.

The suit stems from a blog post by Askey on his Bibliobrary.net blog in 2010.

In the past day the story has started to get coverage in non-library or higher education sources. The Hamilton Spectator post (linked below) includes a few comments from Dale Askey.

Click through for a roundup of press coverage, statements of support, and other materials.

A professional librarian at McMaster University’s library complained, in a 2010 blog-post, that [Edwin] Mellen [Press] was a poor publisher with a weak list of low-quality books, scarcely edited, cheaply produced, but at exorbitant prices. Librarians are expert at making such judgments; that’s what universities pay them to do. And the post made a key point about the public interest: ‘in a time when libraries cannot purchase so much of the first-class scholarship, there is simply no reason to support such ventures.’

No one likes bad reviews; but Mellen’s approach is not to disprove the assessment, pledge to improve its quality, or reconsider its business-model. It is to slam McMaster University and its librarian with a three million dollar lawsuit in the Ontario Superior Court, alleging libel and claiming massive aggravated and exemplary damages. The matter is pending.

— Edwin Mellen Press Suing a Librarian? | Academic Librarian: On Libraries, Rhetoric, Poetry, History, & Moral Philosophy (via thepinakes)