Copyright Awareness, Partnerships, and Training Issues in Academic Libraries
Section snippets
Literature Review
In the general copyright literature, much has been written about copyright and “its interpretation and application to higher education” (Albitz, 2013, p. 430). Intellectual property issues have dominated the higher education literature and three key areas in particular that have been prominent among these discussions are “plagiarism, technology transfer, and illegal music downloading” (Albitz, 2013, p. 429). In the academic library context, published studies have included “major attempts to
Methodology
The data presented was obtained from a national survey conducted in November 2012. As stated above, the overall purpose of this study was to gain insight regarding the experiences of academic librarians and library staff in the U.S. with copyright-related services and to identify any training needs related to providing copyright information. To accomplish this, an online questionnaire was utilized to assess awareness of various copyright policies, copyright partnerships on campus, and training
Findings
A total of 226 individuals currently working in academic libraries (N = 226) in the United States responded to the survey. As seen in Table 1, survey respondents included academic librarians (60.6%, n = 123), library administrators (24.1%, n = 49), and library staff members (13.8%, n = 28). The greatest number of survey responses came from those self-identifying as librarians in academic settings (60.6%, n = 123).
A significant portion of survey respondents (93.3%, n = 209) indicated that their current
Discussion and Recommendations
This study was designed to examine awareness of various copyright policies, copyright partnerships on campus, and training issues in academic libraries in the United States. The results of the survey illuminated the perceptions of those working in academic libraries about their ability to provide copyright-related services, level of awareness of copyright policies, range of copyright partnerships on campus, and training issues. To this end, these findings extend the existing literature and
Conclusion
This study is the first to document awareness of specific copyright policies, range of copyright partnerships on campus, and training issues within academic libraries in the United States. While many studies have been done on copyright-related topics in higher education, few have explicitly examined these topics. In order to successfully meet increasing copyright challenges in academic environments, data from this national survey have practical implications for copyright management in academic
REFERENCES (19)
Copyright information management and the university library: Staffing, organizational placement and authority
Journal of Academic Librarianship
(2013)- et al.
Copyright policies and the deciphering of fair use in the creation of reserves at university libraries
The Journal of Academic Librarianship
(2005) - et al.
Exploring copyright knowledge in relation to experience and education level among academic librarians in Kenya
The International Information & Library Review
(2012) - et al.
Copyright knowledge of faculty at two academic health science campuses
Serials Review
(2006) Fair use challenges in academic and research libraries
- et al.
New liaison librarians: Factors influencing confidence levels and the type of activities
Electronic Journal of Academic and Special Librarianship
(2008) - Columbia University Libraries (n.d.). Fair Use Checklist. Retrieved from...
- Copyright Law of the United States, 17 U.S.C. § 102...
- et al.
Common ground at the nexus of information literacy and scholarly communication
Cited by (42)
An evaluation of copyright communication infrastructure: Fostering stakeholder harmony in academic libraries in Ghana
2021, Journal of Academic LibrarianshipCitation Excerpt :Charbonneau and Priehs (2014), on the other hand, reported that out of 226 respondents 49.3% said they did not have a designated copyright centre or expert, and 10.5% indicated that they “did not know” if their institution had a copyright centre or expert. Charbonneau and Priehs (2014) went on to conclude that such a scenario may result in confusion, with implications for copyright management and the coordination of services and support across campus. Todorova et al. (2017), in reporting the lack of copyright experts in the library also indicated that the absence of such an expert among the staff could account for the lack of copyright awareness within an institution.
Effects of awareness of user rights on compliance with copyright laws and policies in academic libraries
2021, Journal of Academic LibrarianshipCitation Excerpt :However Morrison and Secker (2015) reported that though information professionals in the UK were very highly aware of copyright issues 10% of the respondents thought that their services did not require them to be compliant with copyright legislation. Charbonneau and Priehs (2014) also reported that though the majority of academic librarians in the US indicated that they had had to answer questions on copyright in the course of their work, they were not confident to provide copyright information to their clients. Some authorities have argued that to address the age-old challenge of copyright violation in academic libraries among clients librarians, lecturers and libraries themselves, should assist to increase the level of awareness of copyright laws among students (Adeyinka & Oyeyemi, 2017).
The level of awareness and understanding of copyright laws and policies among academic librarians in Ghana
2021, Journal of Academic LibrarianshipCitation Excerpt :Though awareness of the copyright laws and policies among academic librarians in Ghana is very high, their level of understanding is only ‘moderate’ to ‘high’ in many instances. The generally lower level of understanding compared to the level of awareness of copyright laws and policies could be due to the fact that the instruction received by graduates of LIS programmes is neither widespread enough, nor is it in-depth enough to prepare LIS graduates for the current demands of the workplace (Charbonneau & Priehs, 2014; Fernández-Molina et al., 2017; Frederiksen, 2016; Schmidt & English, 2015). The current situation is a worrying development for copyright administration in academic libraries in Ghana, and therefore calls for continuous professional education, if academic librarians are to efficiently and effectively play their role as agents of copyright education to the university community.
University copyright/scholarly communication offices: Analysis of their services and staff profile
2020, Journal of Academic LibrarianshipAcademic Libraries and Copyright: Unveiling Inadequacies of Current Law Through the Analysis of Processes Included in Quality Management Systems
2017, Journal of Academic LibrarianshipCitation Excerpt :Problems may also arise regarding the norms for the protection of “technological measures”, for instance if we wish to access the contents of a work protected by some DRM (digital rights management) system (Fernández-Molina, 2003; Ginsburg, 2005; Agnew, 2008; Iwahashi, 2011). In short, the traditional conflict between the interests of libraries and their users and those of the copyright holders has been amplified and complicated by digital developments (Dreier, 2001; Ferullo, 2004; Gasaway, 2010; Albitz, 2013; Charbonneau & Priehs, 2014; Hansen, 2014). Not only has digital technology radically transformed how intellectual works are created and disseminated, it has also had a direct impact on copyright law—in recent years it is being modified in the international realm as well as in different national laws.