By Prof. Kenneth Schlesinger
Responding to an urgent professional need, the Council of Chief Librarians of City University has appointed a task force to develop a written policy for copyright compliance among CUNY libraries. The report of policy recommendations was submitted to the Council on April 8th.
The Task Force consistes of library representatives from most of the senior colleges: Eric Neubacher (Brauch), Judith Wild (Brooklyn), Rick Uttich (City), Julie Cunningham (Graduate Center), Pamela Wonsek (Chair; Hunter), Ellen Sexton (John Jay), and Amy Beth (Queens).
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Kenneth Schlesinger is representing LaGuardia's Library Media Resources Center, the only community college on the panel.
The Task Force's charge is formidable: to locate, evaluate and adapt copyright policies in library service areas including photocopying and laser scanning, electronic reserves, Interlibrary Loan, licensing, multimedia and distance education. Ultimately, however, it is hoped that the group can develop a sound, coherent document that will demonstrate CUNY libraries' commitment to upholding equitable fair use applications in an academic research environment. Ideally, this will benefit teaching and research for both faculty and students alike.
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| ASK THE LIBRARIAN by Scott White |
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Copyright issues are often confusing to faculty. As copyright law changes rapidly to respond to the increasing digitization of content making information easier to distribute, but also to copy, faculty may not always understand how the changes affect the use of content in the classroom.
Common questions concern the use of photos, sound files or images found on the web to support class instruction. Faculty often want to copy and paste photos to their website or Blackboard site, place full-text reserve articles on line or use sound clips to support a lesson. The ease of copying often belies the fact that it is illegal to do so in many cases. Conversely, since it is easier to copy, it is also easier to detect infringement.
Fair use of copyrighted materials is covered under copyright law. The four factors of fair use include:
- Purpose of use - copyright law supports use for teaching and scholarship
- Characteristics or nature of the material being used - Are you copying an original photograph from a web-site intended to demonstrate the author's photographic ability? (Not permitted)
- Amount of the work used - Are you copying the whole journal article for your class, or just a section? (Both may be permitted under certain circumstances).
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- Effect of the use on market value of original work - Are you decreasing the creator's profit on his/her work?
The goal of the following guidelines is to provide balance to copyright users and holders. There are steps you can take to comply with copyright law and policy while providing students access to materials.
- Obtain Permission. Obtaining permission is the best way to ensure you are in copyright compliance.
- Look for permission statements. Sometimes web pages will contain written copyright notices about the content contained on the site.
- Insert Links to Material. You may link to material on the web instead of copying it to your own website.
- Use Proper Citation Methods. Many authors will allow you to copy content contained on their site as long as you provide a source citation.
- Use Licensed Resources. The Library has licensed resources to provide online access to full text documents, images and other research materials. You can copy or create the links to full text articles and insert them on your web page, into your BlackBoard course, etc.
Call me at x5441 if you have any questions.
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Other times by appointment.
Please call x5434
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Q. I don't understand this whole copyright thing. How can I use copyrighted materials in my online course or web page without getting into trouble with the "copyright police"?
A. Read the "Ask the Librarian" Column.
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