COPYCENSE

The American Library Association Washington Office’s Office for Information and Technology Policy is in the process of developing the Copyright Advisory Network, an online resource that will allow librarians to post questions about copyright issues, and receive answers to those issues. The answers will come from the Association’s copyright experts, presumably including Carrie Russell, who writes the "Carrie on © column in School Library Journal, and is the author of Complete Copyright.

"The ALA should be appluaded for taking this step. It will be interesting to see how the Association navigates unauthorized practice of law concerns, and it also will be interesting to see the volume and nature of questions that may be posted to the Network.

Above all, this initiative highlights how important copyright knowledge is to all information professionals, including librarians. It is a shame, however, that so few graduate information science programs devote a full course to the topic. When last I checked about a year ago, no more than five of this nation’s ALA-accredited graduate library science programs offer a course in copyright law. (Fortunately, my alma mater, Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies, is one of them.)

American Library Association. Copyright Advisory Network.

Attribution: SNTReport.com first discovered news of the Copyright Advisory Network through a posting in LibraryLaw Blog, edited by Mary Minow.