The Importance of Learning the Difference Between Copyright and Wrong
Empowering Programs to Teach Copyright Education
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21900/j.alise.2023.1347Keywords:
open education resources, copyright, LIS curriculum, legal issues, core competenciesAbstract
Copyright impacts all aspects of librarianship and most aspects of the wider information professions, yet courses that specifically address the legal rights and limitations of U.S. Federal Copyright law are not well represented in Library and Information Science (LIS) curriculum (Cross & Edwards, 2011; Schmidt & English, 2015). Studies have found a lack of copyright familiarity let alone literacy among librarians and LIS students surrounding many important copyright topics regarding open licensing, orphan works, and digital institutional repositories (Estell & Saunders, 2016; Saunders & Estell, 2019). The recent update to ALA’s Core Competencies has added additional copyright focused language to note that librarians should have foundational skills to “Understand the legal framework in which libraries operate, including laws relating to copyright and fair use…” (ALA, 2023). The need for this material is quite clear and yet many library and LIS programs have not addressed this notable gap in their curriculum.
This panel of copyright experts, researchers, and course instructors is designed to help identify the roadblocks that have led to a dearth of copyright focused courses, and to opportunities for change using existing resources. The aim of this panel is to inspire all in attendance to work with in their institutions to advocate for more copyright focused instruction throughout LIS.
The panel will consist of five brief five-minute talks from all panelists followed by a moderated discussion with the audience to map out the limitations and opportunities of copyright education for already existing LIS curriculum. The panel will close with a presentation of resources that can be used to improve copyright education including open educational resources and other no-cost material. Closing the session, the panelists will ask audience members to share their contact information, to provide continued support in bringing curricula change to their home programs or departments. We hope this panel will help create a community around this topic and become a regular topic at ALISE and similar conferences.
References
ALA. (2023, January 28). ALAs Core Competencies of Librarianship.
Benson, S. R., & Ocepek, M. (2021). Information Science Students’ Emotional Response to Copyright. Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, e20200086. https://doi.org/10.3138/jelis-2020-0086
Cross, W. M., & Edwards, P. M. (2011). Preservice Legal Education for Academic Librarians within ALA-Accredited Degree Programs. Portal: Libraries and the Academy, 11(1), 533–550.
Estell, A., & Saunders, L.(2016). Librarian Copyright Literacy: Self-Reported Copyright Knowledge Among Information Professionals in the United States. Public Services Quarterly, 12(3), 214–227. https://doi.org/10.1080/15228959.2016.1184997
Saunders, L., & Estell, A. N. (2019). Copyright Literacy of Library and Information Science Students in the United States. Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, 60(4), 329–353. https://doi.org/10.3138/jelis.2018-0059
Schmidt, L., & English, M. (2015). Copyright Instruction in LIS Programs: Report of a Survey of Standards in the U.S.A. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 41(6), 736–743. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2015.08.004
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Copyright (c) 2023 Melissa Ocepek, Sara Benson, Siyao Cheng, Laura Saunders, Tomas Lipinski

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