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Building Copyright Confidence Through Community

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2022

Abstract

A working knowledge of copyright is essential for academic library staff at all levels if they are to effectively support their users. However, it is an area that causes anxiety amongst staff who often feel underprepared to deal with the questions they receive. The Covid-19 pandemic and the corresponding online shift has highlighted the need for embedded copyright expertise but how do academic libraries equip their staff with the copyright knowledge they need and (perhaps crucially) give them the confidence to use it? Although formal training is available, copyright is a changeable area requiring ongoing education which is no longer practical in the age of limited training budgets. This case study of the approach at Cambridge University Libraries explores some of the potential reasons for staff apprehension around copyright, the range of copyright knowledge and skills needed in an academic library and how a collaborative approach has helped to increase the copyright confidence of staff across the institution. This article has been written by Claire Sewell, Research Support Librarian at the University of Cambridge.

Type
Current Interests
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by British and Irish Association of Law Librarians

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References

Footnotes

1 Janet Finch, ‘Accessibility, Sustainability, Excellence: How to Expand Access to Research Publications. Report of the Working Group on Expanding Access to Published Research Findings’ (2012).

2 Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003.

3 Legal Deposit Libraries (Non-Print Works) Regulations 2013 SI 2013/777.

4 Wakaruk, Amanda and others, ‘Introducing the Copyright Anxiety Scale’ (2021) 5(1) Journal of Copyright in Education and Librarianship 1CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 Morrison, Chris and others, ‘Understanding Librarians’ Experiences of Copyright: Findings from a Phenomenographic Study of UK Information Professionals’ (2017) 38(6/7) Library Management 354CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 Oppenheim, Charles and others, ‘A Survey of Copyright Advice and Guidance in UK Higher Education Libraries’ (2009) 28(89) Library and Information Research 50CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 Jane Secker and others, ‘Copyright Literacy in the UK: Results from a Survey of Library and Information Professionals’ in Serap Kurbanoglu and others (eds.), Information Literacy: Moving Toward Sustainability (Springer 2015).

8 Todorova, Tania and others, ‘Information Professionals and Copyright Literacy: a Multinational Study’ (2017) 38(6/7) Library Management 323Google Scholar.