Friday, September 30, 2022

It Takes a Village: Copyright and Continuing Education : 2022 Miami University Libraries Copyright Conference

Copyright symbol made from puzzle pieces

This session occurred on Sept. 14.  A recording of the session and slides are available.

Description:

In this webinar we’ll highlight partnerships and collaborative efforts aimed at helping library staff and patrons learn about the law and identify ways to effectively exercise user rights, such as fair use, when encountering copyright questions and issues.

Speakers: 

My Summary:

Even though I had watched this session live, I decided to watch the entire recording and I'm glad I did. What stood out to me wasn't yet in my notes.

First, we need to create hubs of copyright knowledge in out institutions and across our institutions, which can answer copyright questions and provide support to each other. A hub of folks will be more able to answer questions from their pool of knowledge then just one person.

Second, copyright and fair use is a part of many positions in a library, e.g., reference, metadata, special collections. So you have several people who are each spending a little bit of time on copyright from their perspective.

Third, we need to train more people to handle copyright and fair use questions, so they are available to be the hubs we need.  There is already a lot of copyright training available, both fee-based and free, so we don't need to create more. Rather we need to get people to take the training that is available and then use what they have learned. Pantalony spoke about the need to make training available without a fee, so there is no cost barrier. Some organizations can afford to not charge for their workshops, while others need to charge or to have their workshops funded in some way. However, yes, eliminating that barrier would allow more people to be trained and the more, the better.

Fourth, if you are someone with copyright knowledge in your institution, you should others in your institution who also have copyright knowledge and create your own hub. Share your knowledge. Tell each other what you continue to learn about copyright and fair use. Become a force for "copyright good" in your institution.

Notes:

Kyle Courtney:

  • The village is filled with questions, e.g., fair use, public domain, licensing, and how to find materials to substitute for those you cannot use.
  • How do you build expertise in the village?
  • One people have some knowledge, have people use their knowledge. Offer scenarios and have people apply their own fair use analysis. Where did they fall? What did the courts do?
  • Visualize the case, e.g., how does transformation occur?
  • Fair use is a right - need to education people on this and do myth busting.
  • Need to build a community around copyright and fair use
  • Benson, Sara R. "Increasing Librarian Confidence and Comprehension in a Fair Use Training Session." portal: Libraries and the Academy, vol. 18 no. 4, 2018, p. 781-804. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/pla.2018.0045.
  • If you build a community, your front-line questions can get answered.
    • Maximize the easy questions.
    • More difficult questions have a community to handle them.
    • The community can mitigate risk for the entire institution.
  • If the training is successful, everyone gets a bit more knowledge.
  • Internally your organization can build bench strength. Externally, you build connections to others and more copyright-knowledge hubs.
  • "Can You Fair Use it?" - Knight grant to crowd-source fair use knowledge. Built a sustained understanding together.

 Will Cross (who represented work he has done with Maria Bonn and Josh Bolick):

  • Copyright Education in LIS: "Rare, elective, and haphazard" - true for copyright and true for scholarly communication also.
    • Schmidt, Leetta & English, Michael. (2015). Copyright Instruction in LIS Programs: Report of a Survey of Standards in the U.S.A.. The Journal of Academic Librarianship. 41. 10.1016/j.acalib.2015.08.004.
  • Working on an open textbook.
  • Decisions need more than a textbook, because the answer can often be "it depends".
  • The Scholarly Communications Notebook.
    • The SCN has a community of curators, including Sara Benson, who focused on copyright.
    • Building inclusive community resources - in the OER Commons copyright collection.
    • This is a growing repository.

Dave Hansen:

  • Currently with the Authors Alliance, a non-profit. The Authors Alliance has put together guides on publishing for writers regarding copyright and fair use.
  • Developed the The Library Copyright Institute  , http://library.copyright.institute/, while at Duke, in collaboration with three other institutions in North Carolina.
    • Created to support libraries from all types of institutions. 
    • Specially aimed at supporting librarians at historically under-funded institutions, and minority serving institutions.
    • Need to be responsible to what people say they actually need.
    • Then grew the program to cover a larger geographic area.
    • Moved from a in-person to a virtual event.

Rina Pantalony:

  • OCEAN: Open Copyright Education Advisory Network
    • A new online copyright educational initiative.
  • For professionals working with cultural heritage collections
    • In libraries, archives, and museums, and other like organizations
  • Learning from each other.
  • Identifies points of convergence in practice and addresses them practically.
  • Did research in how copyright is being taught. Found that copyright is being taught repeated (e.g., copyright 101) by folks flying solo. Cultural heritage community needed an education strategy to archive scale. 
  • 2021 did an OCEAN pilot with LYRASIS. Each session has 90-minutes of instruction with live Q&A.
    • Five course offerings:
      • Copyright 101
      • No Fear Fair Use: Practical Fair Use for Cultural Institutions
      • Copyright Limitations and Exceptions
      • Understanding the Public Domain
      • Copyright in Action: An Introduction to Rights Metadata
    • Over 1600 total registrants for the five classes
    • More than 700 attended the free Copyright 101 class. The other courses had a nominal fee.
  • Pilot takeaways
    • Proven copyright educators result in high registration numbers.
    • Presumption that there is no value in free is false.
    • Remove financial barriers to education to achieve scale.
    • More lost than gained in restricting access to recordings.
      • Make them open.
      • Make them free.
      • Don't record the Q&A to allow participants to speak freely.
      • Real value is found in interacting with educators in Q&A
    • Workshops allow registrants to apply knowledge to facts to solve real world problems.
  • Have moved beyond the pilot with five additional interactive sessions in spring 2022. Free.
    • What is OCEAN and what do we plan to do?
    • Deeds of Gift
    • Negotiating permission for images
    • How to work with the general counsel's office
    • Rights reversion and termination of transfer
  • Have scheduled five sessions for fall 2022 and have workshops in the works. Have some things scheduled for 2023.
    • Look for save the date notices on the OCEAN website.
  • Will be collaborating with CLIR going forward. Info to be announced soon.

Q&A

  • How do you structure copyright support in smaller institutions?
    • There are people in the library where copyright has become part of their jobs (e.g., metadata librarian). Getting them trained then creates a community of people who can answer copyright questions.
    • Where are the copyright points of pain internally? Can librarians be part of the support network to address those points of pain?
    • The network helps to support those with deep knowledge, because it lessens that person's need to answer every question.
  • How do we get MSLIS students to take advantage of these copyright offerings?
    • Could this learning happen earlier in a person's education?
    • How early should copyright and fair use education begin? We are all creators.
  • Can copyright knowledge become part of the ALA standards?
  • Comment about getting copyright folks involved in teaching in MSLIS programs.
  • Tip: Build a relationship with your institution's general counsel.
    • Know that every attorney did not take an in-depth copyright course in law school, so they might appreciate knowing that you have copyright knowledge.

Thursday, September 29, 2022

Taking the Hill: Partnerships in Legislative and Policy Making: 2022 Miami University Libraries Copyright Conference

Copyright symbol made from puzzle pieces

This session was on Sept. 13, 2022. The recording (go to minute 16 where it begins) and slides are available. I was not able to attend this live, so my summary is from watching the recording.

Title:

Taking the Hill: Partnerships in Legislative and Policy Making

Description:

In this webinar we’ll look at the ways those working with copyright at libraries and educational institutions can effectively advocate on behalf of their profession and their patrons as new laws are being considered or in policy making.

Speakers:

10 people involved in advocacy

My Summary:

  • Benson talked about advocating for a specific client or case versus advocating for an entire institution.
  • Before advocating, you need to understand what the issues really are.
  • Find advocacy partners. For example, there could be natural advocates on campus regarding copyright or fair use. Who is talking about copyright or fair use on campus?
  • After advocating on campus, Benson began thinking about advocating on a larger scale.
  • Benson covered examples with 1201 exemption, sovereign immunity, and the CASE Act.
  • Vollmer spoke about DMCA Section 1201 and UC Copyright Ownership Policy
  • How can researchers conduct text data mining techniques, if there is DRM, even when data mining is fair use?
    • October 2021: narrow new exemption for TDM on DRM-protected motion pictures and eBooks.
  • Vollmer mentioned how his office has tried to update his academic community on copyright issues.
  • The University of California Copyright Ownership Policy was updated in 2021. It hasn't been updated since 1992! He explained why his office had been involved.
    •  This is a policy that is worth looking at, even if you are not in an academic institution. It contains good definitions, etc., and may be helpful in helping others think about what their policy should contain.
  • Know when you should and should not be involved.
  • Cultivate relationships with partners and stakeholders.
  • Remember to communicate!
  • Wyber began by stating what advocacy isn't: not just about lobbying, not a solo activity, not a single skill.
  • Who should (or could) be involved in advocacy? Wyber provided this list which is in the image above. There is also a list of 8 difference capacities in his presentation.
  • Library Advocacy Personality Type Quiz - interesting and fun.
  • Lots of good text - some tiny text - in Wyber's slides.

Wednesday, September 28, 2022

The Evolution of Copyright Librarianship: 2022 Miami University Libraries Copyright Conference

Copyright symbol made from puzzle pieces

After attending the Miami University Libraries' Copyright Conference in 2021, I was excited to attend it again this year. While my schedule didn't allow me to attend each one live, I'm thankful to be able to access the recordings and slides. I'll be writing up my notes over the next several days.

Like last year, the conference was hosted by Carla Myers and the 2022 conference was kicked off by John Millard, both of Miami University (Ohio).  This year the event sponsors were:

The first session (Sept. 12) was "The Evolution of Copyright Librarianship: How we got here, and critical partnerships that help form our profession." (Yes, a super long title!) 

Description: 

...a discussion about how the profession of copyright librarianship emerged and the key role partnerships play in helping us effectively address copyright issues and considerations when offering services and resources to patrons.

Presenters:

  • Jody Bailey, Emory University
  • Kyle K. Courtney, Harvard University
  • Kenneth D. Crews, Gipson Hoffman & Pancione
  • Will Cross, North Carolina State Univ.
  • Dave Hansen, Authors Alliance

My Summary:

Looking at my notes below, three things stand out to me. 
  • First - and this is no surprise - copyright education is important for library staff.  We need staff to be trained so they can handle questions AND so they can support each other when questions arise. They also help support their colleagues at other institutions. Kyle Courtney refers to these folks as being hubs and spokes. You might also think of them as being a web of support.
  • Second, there are many, many - many - opportunities for learning about copyright and fair use. This includes both low cost and free options. We need to better promote all of these options and help library folks take advantage of them. Libraries might want to consider a cohort model for this training, where learners would then become natural supports for each other.
  • Third,  the hiring challenges mentioned by Jody Bailey are important to understand. How do we get more people into library copyright positions? How do we prepare them for those roles? How do we create a web of support around them?
My notes below are not perfect. Again, the recordings and slides are available. (So why do I write up my notes if you can take your own? Habit and it helps me remember what stood out to me.)

My Notes:

Crews noted the different ways copyright plays out in our organizations. He did this while introducing the speakers and their roles.

How did we get here? (Crews)

  • Changes which took effect in 1978
    • Fair use and statues
    • Official guidelines and interpretations
    • Policies and agreements
    • New law caught our attention
  • 1994: Technology and education
    • First copyright office in an academic institution
  • 1998: Confidence and solutions
    • Conference on Fair Use
    • Digital Millennium Copyright Act
    • TEACH Act
    • Copyright Term Extension Act
    • Fair use was still an issue
    • We were confident that we could find answers

Mass Digitization and Digital Access: The Litigation Years (Hansen)

  • The technology (and fair use) revolution stated in the early 2000s
  • 2002 Google book project began and organized library partners
  • Google was sued in 2005 over this project (copyright infringement). Google believed what they were doing was legal under fair use.
    • Google won the lawsuit
    • 30+ million volumes are available in some fashion
  • Began to see scanning of orphan works and the digitization of smaller collections
  • Cambridge University Press v. Patton (2008) - are ereserves fair use? 
    • The publishers and authors went after academic institutions. 
    • Settled in 2020. 
    • Result? Yes, this work is fair use for classroom support.
  • Authors Guild v. HathiTrust (2011). This case also broke the illusion that academic institutions would not be sued.
  • A benefit has been improved accessibility

Integrating Copyright Librarians into System of Scholarly Communication (Will Cross)

  • 2000s: Series crisis and author rights - a crisis of cost and publication agreements
    • Copyright librarians needed to develop legal skills
  • 2010s: Copyright as a the Foundation for Open Knowledge
    • Copyright Librarians = Scholarly communications individuals
    • Open knowledge, open access, open data, open communication, open licenses
  • 2020s: Re-centering Copyright in Open Knowledge
    • "Help me CC BY, you're my only hope!" This insufficient. 
  • Ongoing work: Information policy and advocacy - legal advocacy, policies, popular outreach
  • Emerging work: Since we have lawyers handing around...there is work to be done!

Copyright First Responders National Program (Courtney)

  • Role of libraries in copyright law
    • Decentralized subject expertise
  • Copyright First Responders
    • Hub and spoke model
    • Immersive learning environment
    • Library & Archive-Focused Copyright Curriculum
    • Practical curriculum
    • Decentralized models
    • Subject expertise
    • Part of core values/mission
    • Natural place for copyright questions to arrive
    • Spokes - after learning - become hubs
    • Layer a slice of copyright knowledge on top of a person's existing knowledge (subject expertise)
    • Immersive, "safe space" learning environment - training and shared experience
    • The hope is that people will become advocates for change

Tomorrow's copyright libraries: Who's in the pipeline? (Bailey)

  • What's happening now?
  • Hiring challenges
    • Lots of openings - 9 universities in 5 months
    • Must people be on-site? Can it be remote or hybrid?
    • Why is hiring a copyright librarian so hard?
    • Lack of transparency on salaries
    • Unique positions
    • Highly specialized skills possessed by only a few
    • High levels of training and education required
    • Not "sexy" or high profile?
    • Perceived as only for wonks?
  • The future How do we proceed?
    • Make more training available
    • Advocate to LIS programs and LLM/JM programs to add copyright coursework
    • Promote continuing education
    • Internal copyright training
    • External mentoring/coaching
    • Distribution of copyright duties

Monday, September 26, 2022

Design thinking and libraries (and a reminder about brainstorming)

Many libraries are engaging in design thinking. The Interaction Design Foundation defines it as:

Design thinking is a non-linear, iterative process that teams use to understand users, challenge assumptions, redefine problems and create innovative solutions to prototype and test. Involving five phases—Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test—it is most useful to tackle problems that are ill-defined or unknown.

Design thinking is not mysterious, in fact, it is likely that you are already doing it (e.g., brainstorming). However, good design thinking requires structure. Here are a few resources to help you understand and use it, as well as links to several blog posts I've written on brainstorming. (BTW good brainstorming follows a few easy rules.)

Resources on design thinking:

Friday, September 16, 2022

Article: Cameras On or Off? It Depends! What We’ve Learned from Students about Teaching and Learning on Zoom

Whether cameras should be on or off during an online class, webinar, or meeting continues to be a hot topic...and something I think about when giving or attending a webinar. Torrey Trust, PhD, and Lauren Foss Goodman, MFA, MEd did some research on this and then wrote what they learned. This likely will not stop the debate, but helpful - at least for me - to read what they learned. The article includes additional references, if you want to read more.

Thursday, September 08, 2022

ALA Press books on copyright and the Creative Commons

The catalogue of ALA textbooka and course resources has arrived and there are books worth noting:

Benson, Sarah. (2021) Compact Copyright: Quick Answers to Common Questions.

Description: Faculty, students, and colleagues come to you with copyright questions, both simple and complex. And they all want reliable answers—as fast as you can get them. With this guide, designed for ready access, you’ll be prepared to deliver. Lawyer, copyright librarian, and iSchool instructor Benson presents succinct explanations ideal for both on-the-fly reference and staff training. Copyright specialists will appreciate excerpts from the law itself alongside tools and resources for digging deeper. Practical discussions of key legal concepts, illustrated using 52 scenarios, will lead you to fast, accurate answers on a range of topics, such as

  • barriers to using the TEACH Act provisions in content for online teaching;
  • showing a full-length movie in a university class;
  • public domain and the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act;
  • your legal options when receiving a DMCA take-down notice;
  • court interpretations of fair use in three key recent cases;
  • Creative Commons licenses, complete with a quick reference chart;
  • library rights to license photographs in a digital collection;
  • using letters under copyright in a special collections display case;
  • a grad student’s right to use in a thesis writing published in their professor’s journal article;
  • applying the implied license option to post historical student dissertations in institutional repositories;
  • the Marrakesh Treaty provision supporting transfer of accessible works internationally; and
  • limiting factors for interlibrary loan.

Creative Commons (2019) Creative Commons for Educators and Librarians.

Description: The figures are eye-opening: more than 1.6 billion works on 9 million websites are licensed under Creative Commons (CC). These materials constitute an extraordinarily rich repository for teaching, learning, sharing, and creative reuse. Knowing your way around CC will help you make the most of the Open Access (OA) and open educational resources (OER) movements. This book represents the first-ever print complement to the CC Certificate program, providing in-depth coverage of CC licenses, open practices, and the ethos of the Commons. Inside readers will find guidance on

  • the layers and elements of CC licenses, with clear explanations on how they interact;
  • reusing, revising, and remixing;
  • how to acknowledge the underlying work in a remix;
  • techniques for locating works in the public domain and communicating their value;
  • supporting learners’ access to a wide array of open knowledge resources in primary, secondary, and higher education;
  • assessing institutional policies for open education, plus advice on revising these policies;
  • ways to adapt existing openly licensed materials in order to keep your institution’s knowledge base relevant and up to date;
  • how to meet the open licensing requirements increasingly present in government and foundation grants and contracts; and
  • hundreds of authoritative resources for additional learning.

This book is published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license; digital versions are available for download at Creative Commons web page Certificate Resources (CC BY).

Crews, Kenneth. (2020) Copyright Law for Librarians and Educators: Creative Strategies and Practical Solutions, Fourth Edition.

Description: Copyright law never sleeps, making it imperative to keep abreast of the latest developments. Declared “an exemplary text that seals the standards for such books” (Managing Information), this newly revised and updated edition by respected copyright authority Crews offers timely insights and succinct guidance for LIS students, librarians, and educators alike. Readers will

  • learn basic copyright definitions and key exceptions for education and library services;
  • find information quickly with “key points” sidebars, legislative citations, and cross-references;
  • get up to speed on fresh developments, such as how the recently signed Marrakesh Treaty expands access for people with disabilities and why the latest ruling in the Georgia State University case makes developing a fair use policy so important;
  • understand the concept of fair use, with fresh interpretations of its many gray areas that will aid decision making;
  • learn the current state of affairs regarding mass digitization, Creative Commons, classroom use and distance education, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and other important topics;
  • receive guidance on setting up on a copyright service at a library, college, or university; and
  • find many helpful checklists for navigating copyright in various situations.

This straightforward, easy-to-use guide provides the tools librarians and educators need to take control of their rights and responsibilities as copyright owners and users.

Thursday, September 01, 2022

2022 Miami University Libraries Copyright Conference

Miami University University Libraries
Below is information on a copyright conference, which I attended last year. If that conference is any indication, this one will be awesome. The entire event is spread over five days and it is all online. The announcement says:
The 2022 Miami University Libraries Copyright Conference will be held online the week of September 12. It features a series of five 90-minute webinars (one each day) exploring this year’s theme of Copyright Collaborations! Celebrating our victories: past, present, and future. You can learn more about the event by visiting this webpage. Registration for the conference costs $25 and includes access to the live online sessions and recordings after. To help ensure the broadest possible participation in the conference, scholarships are available to cover the cost of registration and you can apply for one as part of the registration process. Registration for the conference will also be offered free of charge to all MLIS students.

You can check out the schedule and presenters on the conference website. Registration is $25 plus a $5 processing fee, if payment is by credit card. That's $6 per session!