Copyright Questions and Answers for Information Professionals

Copyright law is a critical issue for authors, librarians, publishers, and information vendors. It is also a complex area, with many shades of gray. Librarians continually need to seek answers to questions ranging from the reproduction of copyrighted works for library users, through the performance of audiovisual works, to the digitization and display of protected works on library websites. This book presents updated versions of the author’s copyright columns published in Against the Grain, the leading journal in acquisitions librarianship since the late 1990s. It is the first volume in the series Charleston Insights in Library, Archival, and Information Sciences. The aim of the Charleston Insights series is to focus on important topics in library and information science, presenting the issues in a relatively jargon-free way that is accessible to all types of information professionals, including librarians, publishers, and vendors, and this goal shapes the pragmatic and accessible tone of the book. The volume is presented in question-and-answer format. The questions are real, submitted by librarians, educators, and other information professionals who have attended the author’s copyright law workshops and presentations or submitted them to her by e-mail or telephone. The author has selected the questions and answers that have general applicability. She has then arranged them into logical chapters, each prefaced by a short introduction to the topic. Because it is written in an accessible and clear style, readers may want to review the entire work or they can just access particular chapters or even specific questions as they need them. The volume includes an index to facilitate reference use.