The OITP Copyright Slider

One of my students found this. The American Library Association's Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP) has created this slideruler-type device to help people understand if a work is still covered by copyright in the U.S. The page give this example:

A library in rural Pennsylvania is digitizing its local historical collection on the copper mining industry in the region. One of the collection texts, Memoirs of a Copper Miner, was published in 1953 and is still protected by copyright. Or is it? Align the black arrow on the slide-chart to materials published between 1923 and 1963 and discover that works originally published in the U.S. between 1923 and 1977 without a copyright symbol are in the public domain! Memoirs of a Copper Miner was published in 1953 and does not have a copyright symbol. Let the digitizing begin!

The simplicity of this tool will be useful to many people. Personally, I could see using this in the classroom when teaching students about copyright. To order, check the ALA web site.

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