Public Services Quarterly

ISSN: 1522-8959 (Print) 1522-9114 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/wpsq20

Understanding Copyright: Essential for Academic

Librarianship

Rachel Reeves

To cite this article: Rachel Reeves (2015) Understanding Copyright: Essential for Academic
Librarianship, Public Services Quarterly, 11:1, 66-73, DOI: 10.1080/15228959.2014.996274

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/15228959.2014.996274

Published online: 24 Mar 2015.

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Public Services Quarterly, 11:66–73, 2015
Published with license by Taylor & Francis
ISSN: 1522-8959 print=1522-9114 online
DOI: 10.1080/15228959.2014.996274

FUTURE VOICES IN PUBLIC SERVICES

Nancy H. Dewald, Column Editor

The Future Voices in Public Services column is a forum for students in

graduate library and information science programs to discuss key issues they
see in academic library public services, to envision what they feel librarians
in public service have to offer to academia, to tell us of their visions for the
profession, or to tell us of research that is going on in library schools. We
hope to provide fresh perspectives from those entering our field, in both
the United States and other countries. Interested faculty of graduate library
and information science programs, who would like their students’ ideas
represented in these pages, are invited to contact Nancy H. Dewald at
nxd7@psu.edu.
Rachel Reeves is an M.L.I.S. student in the School of Information Studies
at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. Here she discusses the importance
of understanding copyright for librarians serving academia.
The School of Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin–
Milwaukee offers several degree programs including the Bachelor of Science
in Information Science and Technology, Master of Library and Information
Science (accredited by the American Library Association), and Ph.D. in Infor-
mation Studies. With a growing student body of more than 900 students,
SOIS strives to meet the demand for technology and information profes-
sionals at all levels in corporations, libraries, archives, government agencies,
schools, nonprofits, and in higher education. SOIS is a leader in online
education and currently enrolls students from all regions of the United States
and from around the world. For more information about the School, its
faculty and its programs, see ischool.uwm.edu or call 1-888-349-3432.


# Rachel Reeves
Comments and suggestions should be sent to the Column Editor: Nancy H. Dewald,
Reference Librarian, Penn State Berks, Tulpehocken Road, P.O. Box 7009, Reading, PA
19610-6009. E-mail: nxd7@psu.edu
Address correspondence to Rachel Reeves, 233 Rancho Drive, Saginaw, TX 76179. E-mail:
rmreeves@uwm.edu

66
 Future Voices in Public Services 67

Understanding Copyright: Essential for

Academic Librarianship

RACHEL REEVES
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA

As someone who aspires to work as an academic librarian and with my

undergraduate education in government and legal studies, I take great inter-
est in the areas of copyright, fair use, and the changing landscape of scholarly
publication, including the rise of open access institutional repositories as part
of the services being offered by academic libraries. An academic librarian
with a strong foundation in deciphering copyright law, applying the standards
of fair use, and an understanding of author’s rights and how to help students
and faculty retain non-commercial rights to the scholarly work they submit for
publication to academic journals can be a great asset to their student and
faculty patrons, as well as to the academic institution employing them.
Deciphering copyright law is no minor challenge, though. Overwhelm-
ingly, it is not clear-cut or absolute, and a great deal of the law is outdated,
especially with the proliferation of online classes in higher education and
digital library collections. What little does exist that pertains to online edu-
cation regarding copyright, such as through the T.E.A.C.H. Act, applies to
synchronous instruction, which does not represent the majority of online
instruction. Classes are more often taught asynchronously, and students are
often scattered across the country or beyond, logging in for class from a num-
ber of time zones, making synchronous instruction less than ideal to meet the
vastly different schedules and needs of students. Updated legislation is
critically needed, but until that happens, academic librarians must work
within existing laws and work to understand the law as it stands currently.
A further complication is that copyright law is designed to be flexible,
but that flexibility can lead to a lot of uncertainty in how to adhere to it while
still promoting the dissemination of information to aid research and progress
in the sciences, technology, medicine, and other academic disciplines. In
fact, as noted in the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) publication Code
of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries (2012),
‘‘The goal of copyright law and policy is to foster the progress of science,
the creation of culture, and the dissemination of ideas’’ (p. 5). This is the
primary purpose of copyright law. It is not only to protect owner’s rights
as is often assumed, though that is the secondary purpose of the law and
is important as well. Understanding this and keeping it in mind as an aca-
demic librarian is vital; failing to consider the primary purpose can lead to
limiting access to needed resources for fear of violating copyright, when
the law contains within it provisions for the use of protected works that
68 Future Voices in Public Services

are for educational purposes. Risk-averse librarians with poor understanding

of copyright can do a great disservice to their student and faculty patrons.
Equally dangerous, though, are the librarians who endanger their institutions
by violating copyright by assuming all educational uses are fair game due to
lack of understanding of the nuances of all of the elements of the laws
pertaining to copyright.
Fair use is an element of copyright law that allows for academic use of
protected works. It also allows for other approved uses that are transforma-
tive or meet other standards of use that are not considered copyright
violations. ARL’s Code of Best Practices (2012) states that:

Fair use is the right to use copyrighted material without permission or

payment under some circumstances, especially when the cultural or
social benefits of the use are predominant . . . .the fair use doctrine is
described only generally in the law, and it is not tailored to the mission
of any particular community. Ultimately, determining whether any use
is likely to be considered ‘‘fair’’ requires a thoughtful evaluation of the
facts, the law, and the norms of the relevant community. (p. 1)

Because there are not specific guidelines for what constitutes fair use, aca-
demic librarians must have a clear understanding of the spirit of the law
and the parameters under which fair use might be applicable. The ability
to evaluate how the work will be used, how much of the work will be used,
if more is being used than is needed for educational purposes, and if what is
being used is substantial, such as the heart of the work, should be part of the
skill set of academic librarians assisting faculty and students with questions of
fair use.
While ARL’s publication provides best use guidelines for libraries, the
guide ‘‘is not a comprehensive or exhaustive guide to all possible applica-
tions of fair use,’’ though it does ‘‘[incorporate] consensus-based community
standards’’ (2012, p. 3). The input of 65 librarians from diverse institutions
was used to create the code. The finding of the survey of these librarians
was that ‘‘librarians frequently did not use their fair use rights when they
could have, and they overestimated the level of conflict between the stric-
tures of copyright law on the one hand and their respective libraries’ mission
on the other’’ (ARL, 2012, p. 2). That uncertainty is significant because ‘‘aca-
demic librarians routinely act as the de facto arbiters of copyright practice for
their institutions and the constituencies they serve’’ (ARL, p. 2). While this is
an essential service academic librarians provide to their faculty and student
patrons, what is the quality of that service if uses that fall under fair use
are restricted or if copyright is infringed upon due to lack of understanding
of copyright and fair use and an inability to effectively evaluate the use
against the provisions of the law and standards allowing for fair use? It
would, in fact, result in more of a disservice.
 Future Voices in Public Services 69

One challenge that is presented in relation to this need for understand-

ing copyright is how librarians can obtain the needed education. Studies such
as the findings presented in ‘‘Preservice Legal Education for Academic Librar-
ians within ALA-Accredited Degree Programs’’ (Cross & Edwards, 2011), note
that ‘‘many [MLS=MLIS] students graduate with a limited understanding of
legal issues’’ (p. 535). The findings further note that ‘‘Although 73% of pro-
grams offer some form of legal education, 14 of [the] programs (24%) offer
only one specialized class, and only 22 (38%) offer any generalized survey
of legal issues in library practice’’ (p. 538). Especially concerning about the
findings, twelve programs offer ‘‘no courses on substantive legal topics . . .
[, and] no program requires any legal education in order to graduate [,
meaning . . . a] student could conceivably graduate from any LIS program in
North America without having had substantive training in legal issues that
affect library practice’’ (p. 539). At the time of Cross and Edwards’s research,
there were only four programs, of 57, offering a specialization or certification
in legal topics, including University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, University of
British Columbia, University of Denver, and University of Washington (Cross
& Edwards). Only four programs offering specialization in such a complex
area that is vital to the knowledge base of academic librarians is not
sufficient. As Cross and Edwards state:

Unfortunately, the current state of legal education within LIS programs

raises particular concerns in that it may give some librarians a false sense
of security. In the absence of thorough legal education, commonly
repeated misinformation may take hold and be perpetuated. (2011,
p. 545)

Cross and Edwards note how misconceptions such as the rule of 20% for
photocopying of books and assuming that lawsuits cannot be filed against
state schools lead to poor decision making that is dangerous to an academic
institution, with the ongoing lawsuit against Georgia State University as a
perfect example (Cross & Edwards, 2011, p. 545).
All of this is especially concerning in light of the fact that the ‘‘ALA Core
Competences of Librarianship’’ (2009) lists in 1 G of Foundations of the
Profession, ‘‘The legal framework within which libraries and information
agencies operate. That framework includes laws relating to copyright, priv-
acy, freedom of expression, equal rights (e.g., the Americans with Disabilities
Act), and intellectual property’’ (p. 2). The ALA recognizes how legal edu-
cation is essential and, in fact, obligates LIS programs to educate students,
but education is this area appears to be lacking in many programs. While
important to the profession in general, it is especially important for preparing
MLS=MLIS students for academic librarianship where answering questions
and assisting in decisions regarding copyright and fair use could factor into
their future work on a daily basis. Making this an even greater issue of
70 Future Voices in Public Services

concern, the literature on the education of teachers is similar (Cross &

Edwards, 2011, p. 536). Cross and Edwards note that studies show that when
it comes to teachers taking law courses, greater than 85% lack the education,
and what legal education they do have is in regards to behavior and perfor-
mance (2011, p. 536). Better legal education for academic librarians is neces-
sary, as librarians are guiding teaching faculty in how to navigate copyright
and fair use. Someone in that equation must have the proper education in
copyright, and as the professional members of the center for research and
information on campuses, librarians are the logical choice.
To further compound the issue, many librarians currently in the pro-
fession do not feel confident in their knowledge about copyright. Charbon-
neau and Priehs reveal in ‘‘Copyright Awareness, Partnerships, and Training
Issues in Academic Libraries’’ (2014) that while 93% of the respondents in
their survey handle copyright questions and issues in the duties of their
library position, only 49% felt prepared for handling them (p. 230). This is
significant because ‘‘Providing copyright guidance with an incomplete
understanding of copyright law can lead to copyright-compliance problems
and result in confusion or frustration for faculty, students, and those working
in academic libraries alike’’ (p. 231). Additionally, only 57.1% reported hav-
ing received copyright training from their institution, and many indicated a
desire to obtain more training (p. 232). Preference of respondents was
in-person trainings that are face-to-face or workshops with hands-on
opportunities (p. 233).
An excellent example of this preferred training is the Know Your Rights:
Copyright, Author’s Rights, Intellectual Property and Emerging Intersection
with Institutional Rights forum that the Texas Woman’s University (TWU)
Library held on their campus September 22–23, 2014. Speakers at the forum
were Nick Shockey, director of Programs and Engagement for the Scholarly
Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC); Gretchen McCord,
Texas librarian and attorney who specializes in copyright issues for libraries;
and Diane Graves, assistant vice president for Information Resources and
Librarian=Professor at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. The forum
was attended by TWU librarians and library staff, as well as university faculty
and students, librarians from other institutions, and others. Each speaker was
well-versed in the topics presented and, in fact, considered to be a leader in
the areas of copyright, fair use, and scholarly communication. It provided an
excellent overview of the topics as well as more in-depth information on the
nuances of copyright law and application of fair use. As an alum of TWU and
a current MLIS student interested in these topics, I attended the forum and
gained a great deal from it.
Talking with Sherilyn Bird, dean of Libraries for TWU later about the
forum, she shared that the forum came together in response to a need to edu-
cate staff on these issues in their role as a full academic partner in the insti-
tution. As she imparted, ensuring that librarians and library staff are
 Future Voices in Public Services 71

knowledgeable about copyright and fair use is a way of demonstrating value

to the institution, something with which all libraries are challenged. Addition-
ally, the timing for the forum lined up well with the creation of the univer-
sity’s new Pioneer Open Access Repository (POAR), a service of the library
and a project that was in process during my undergraduate studies at TWU
and while I was a member of the Library Student Advisory Committee. As
Dean Bird noted of the forum, it was an opportunity to provide all members
of the university community with a shared vocabulary and similar
background on copyright, fair use, and scholarly publishing, and it was an
opportunity to educate students on scholarly communication (Bird, personal
communication, October 6, 2014).
In addition to training for librarians and staff provided by institutions
such as TWU’s forum, there are opportunities for obtaining education on
copyright and fair use through multiple avenues. Conferences such as the
annual Copyright Conference held at Ball State University, online classes,
and certificate programs are periodically available. Self-education is possible
via legal reference publications specific to librarians or legal publications for
nonlawyers that are written in plain language, and there are even some
excellent blogs maintained by university librarians who are the copyright
officer, director of Scholarly Communications, or who hold a similar role at
their institution and who are educated in both library science and the law.
An excellent example of this is the blog of Kevin Smith, director of Scholarly
Communications for Duke University, which can be followed at http://
blogs.library.duke.edu/scholcomm/. Frequent discussion of copyright issues
affecting academic libraries and universities is posted and provides an under-
standing of them from a respected leader in the profession.
Academic librarians with a solid foundation in copyright are also vital
to the university’s role in the development and maintenance of institutional
repositories, a significant development that has become a part of scholarly
communications. Institutional repositories increase libraries’ value to the
educational institution they are a part of, and in this digital age are a natural
evolution of the long-standing role academic libraries have played in schol-
arly communication. Today’s academic librarian can act as a source of
information on how faculty and students can negotiate copyright terms
and their rights as the authors of scholarly work with publishers of academ-
ic journals so their body of research can be included in their institutional
repository.
The repositories provide academic institutions a way of showcasing the
research of their faculty and students for a larger audience than traditional
methods of publication allow. Institutional repositories operate on an open
access model where research is not restricted to only subscribers of the jour-
nal where it is published. A great deal of academic research, much of it pub-
licly funded by taxpayers at state institutions of higher learning, has access
limited by the ever-increasing subscription costs for academic journals. This
72 Future Voices in Public Services

is research that could have a great impact on the lives of those affected by the
subject of the research, and if greater access to the research is not made poss-
ible, progress in research and developments for that area can be affected.
Academic research is meant to be shared, so researchers can work together
to solve the medical, scientific, and other questions and problems being
faced by our world. As stated by SPARC:

We engage and invest in research in order to accelerate the pace of scien-

tific discovery, encourage innovation, enrich education, and stimulate the
economy – to improve the public good. Communication of the results of
research is an essential component of the research process; research can
only advance by sharing the results, and the value of an investment in
research is only maximized through wide use of its results. (2013, para. 2)

Institutional repositories are a place where this can happen, and academic
librarians are leading the charge with it.
It is essential that librarians have an understanding of copyright so they
can aid faculty and students in contract negotiation for retaining the
non-commercial rights to their work with publishers of academic journals.
Without that, the work of an institution’s faculty and students may not be
accessible to future generations of students at the institution, or even the cur-
rent students, without first paying for subscription to the academic journal
where the work is published. As all working in libraries know, the cost for
maintaining subscriptions is great for universities and continues to rise. Insti-
tutional repositories provide some alternative to this by establishing a means
of retaining the work of those affiliated with the university, allowing the uni-
versity community to at least learn from and expand upon the research of
their own. Librarians also play a critical role in the development of insti-
tutional repositories as they are often the voice for emerging trends that
increase access to information for library users. Additionally, libraries and
even MLS=MLIS programs, can host forums and events that educate faculty
and students about the changes taking place in scholarly publication, about
their university repository, and about the open access movement such as
TWU’s forum mentioned earlier and as this author’s MLIS program at Univer-
sity of Wisconsin-Milwaukee has done as well.
To best serve their faculty and student patrons, especially in times where
demonstrating library value is critical, academic librarians need a solid foun-
dation in copyright, fair use, and some understanding of scholarly communi-
cation and publishing. Those pursuing a MLS=MLIS and aspiring to go into
academic librarianship should choose programs that offer courses on copy-
right, fair use, and legal issues affecting libraries. For current librarians who
do not feel comfortable in their knowledge of copyright and fair use, they
should take advantage of the variety of learning opportunities available to
increase their knowledge in this important area. Academic librarians who
 Future Voices in Public Services 73

possess an understanding of copyright and skill at evaluating fair use will be a

valuable resource for the service they can offer to faculty and students. Also,
the knowledge and skills can carry over to management of an institutional
repository as part of the library services, important to academic libraries for
reinforcing their role as a partner in the academic mission of their university.

REFERENCES

American Library Association. (2009). Core competences of librarianship. Retrieved

from http://www.ala.org/educationcareers/sites/ala.org.educationcareers/files/
content/careers/corecomp/corecompetences/finalcorecompstat09.pdf
Association of Research Libraries. (2012). Code of best practices in fair use for
academic and research libraries. Washington, DC:Author.
Charbonneau, D. H., & Priehs, M. (2014). Copyright awareness, partnerships, and
training issues in academic libraries. The Journal of Academic Librarianship,
40(3–4), 228–233. doi: 10.1016=j.acalib.2014.03.009
Cross, W. M., & Edwards, P. M. (2011). Preservice legal education for academic
librarians within ALA-accredited degree programs. portal: Libraries and the
Academy, 11(1), 533–550. doi: 10.1353=pla.2011.0007
SPARC. (2013). Open access. Retrieved from http://www.sparc.arl.org/issues/
open-access