If you are in a library, you are probably the point person for answering copyright questions, or for enforcing copyright rules for your organization.

But: how confident do you feel in your knowledge of federal copyright law?? If you are like a lot of library people, you would probably feel better if you had more basic experience.

Libraries and archives are often the locations in an organization where copyright laws meet the demands of your community members. We need to be ready to explain why it is not appropriate (legal) to just scan the latest expensive textbook and put it online for an entire class. We need to provide information on why we can not just photocopy articles from a popular journal every single week to distribute. We need to train our community members in using images online, in sharing information from behind paywalls, and so many more things to help them follow copyright law in their own work.

This summer, CMLE is offering a Copyright Class in our Summer Library  Boot Camp series, to be sure everyone knows what they need to tell their patrons. In this class we will walk through the basics of copyright law, and some ideas about training your community members in understanding and following copyright laws. (Pointing out some of the massive potential financial penalties can be helpful! This is federal law after all, not just “oh, if you get around to it” kind of stuff!)

Check out some of this information, and see if it can answer your questions. If you get stuck, you can always contact us at CMLE Headquarters and we can help you answer questions.

For some quick basics, check out our “Linking Our Libraries” podcast episode on copyright!