Copyright Policy and Practice in Electronic Reserves among ARL Libraries

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a survey of 110 ARL institutions regarding their copyright policies for providing electronic reserves. It compiles descriptive statistics on library practice as well as coding responses to reveal trends and shared practices. Finally, it presents conclusions about policy making, decision making and risk aversion in ARL institutions.

Possible Futures: E-Reserves, Decentralization, and Collaboration

“…In light of the conclusions presented by Hansen, Cross, and Edwards (2013), the fact that E-Reserves face competition from other institutional units when it comes to providing curricular support is not surprising. It is also not surprising, in light of broken service models and changing user culture, that many faculty opt to manage their own curricular resources.…”

Copyright Educational Services and Information in Academic Libraries

“…In the Library Publishing Toolkit, copyright issues arise with respect to the library as a content creator, adding the responsibilities of establishing author agreements, registration processes, and helping to locate not in copyright materials within library collections (Brown, 2013). Creating or guiding policy and procedure, with emphasis on library services that rely especially on exceptions to copyright law, is also a responsibility highlighted in a study by Hansen, Cross and Edwards (2013), who emphasized the importance of practice and policy combined as it was recently reviewed in the litigation involving Georgia State University's e-reserves service. With sundry responsibilities added or removed depending on where a copyright librarian position is located within the library, most commonly scholarly communication or electronic resources (Kawooya, Veverka & Lipinski, 2015), the prevailing duty seems to be one of education.…”

“…Yet, 93% of That sixty six library sites did not, compared to 42 libraries that did, have a disclaimer making clear that the information provided was educational instead of legal belies the amount this subject gets attention in the literature. It is also interesting that only 13% of the libraries' web sites examined had policies that addressed copyright issues related to reserves given the 2013 discussion on the need for such policies and documented procedures in light of recent copyright litigation (Hansen, Cross, & Edwards, 2013). These may represent areas where established services could expand and improve, or might be issues covered within copyright services at libraries, but not represented on library web sites.…”

“…Through the literature we know that, based on increasing demand for specialized services, more libraries have been creating and advertising positions that deal specifically with copyright services or provide assistance on copyright as a central part of their job. It is not surprising then, that the amount of LIS literature devoted to copyright issues, as recorded in LIS Abstracts, increased dramatically from 2007-2013 compared to the twenty years previous (Hansen, Cross & Edwards, 2013). Not only would libraries be investigating the real demand for copyright expertise in order to justify the creation of new positions, the incumbents of those positions would be conducting environmental scans to strategically develop their roles.…”

Copyright Awareness, Partnerships, and Training Issues in Academic Libraries

“…In the academic library context, published studies have included "major attempts to inventory how universities and their libraries deal with intellectual property rights among students, faculty, libraries, and rights holders outside the university" (Hansen et al, 2013, p. 71). These studies have tended to describe copyright policies that universities have crafted to address the ownership and use of copyrighted works (Hansen et al, 2013;Kelley, 2002).…”