Copyright handout from today's workshop

Today I did a three-hour copyright workshop in Jamestown, NY. This was an outgrowth of the digitization planning work that is occurring here and fit in well with the digitization workshop I did in September. The copyright workshop was an overview with lots of questions and answers. I believe all of the attendees worked in or were associated with public libraries. Most had not taken a previous workshop or course on copyright, although many had done some reading related to copyright.

The two-page handout I used with this workshop is here. In addition, I gave them these resources:

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• Creative Commons
  
• ALA's Copyright Advisory Network
  
• AALL Model Law Firm Copyright Policy
• Additional reading on Deed of Gift forms
  
• CIL2006: Digitization Project Management Essentials (deed of gift forms) (2006)
  
• Deed of Gift forms (2004)
  
• A personal deed of gift experience (2004)
  
• Why is this item important? (A personal deed of gift experience, part 2)
  (2005) [This is about building context as part of the Deed of Gift]
  

And I just found this resource that compliments Templeton's "10 Big Myths about copyright explained":

• Debunking Eight Myths about Copyright

One of the questions I asked today was about notices the libraries have on their photocopiers. Some didn't have notices on all of their copiers. The AALL Model Library page proposes this text:

The U.S. Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17 U.S. Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. The person using this equipment is liable for any infringement.

I wish I could recount all of the questions asked today! What the questions clearly demonstrated is that library staff members do have legitimate copyright questions, but don't know who to ask...and so they don't ask them. Most of the questions didn't have quick answers (copyright questions rarely do) and I think they appreciated hearing the the thought process that goes into trying to answer them.

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Technorati tag: Copyright