About the Library Copyright Institute
The premise of the Library Copyright Institute is that we’re all better off when the whole library community is widely and deeply engaged on the legal issues that most directly affect our ability to help users. Regardless of what library you work at, we all need to be able to confidently apply fair use, understand licenses, and assess public domain status. Having fewer resources should not mean that the beneficial rights granted by copyright law are unavailable to librarians, researchers, teachers, and students at those institutions. The Library Copyright Institute is designed to provide immersive training for librarians to master copyright fundamentals, develop competencies in copyright limitations and exceptions such as fair use, and complete hands-on training in the application of copyright to specific areas of librarianship. By design, the immersive experience we aim to provide through the Institute is also meant to encourage the development of a regional community of practice that itself can help participants further learn from each other.
The project is lead by five co-PIs from the four Research Triangle universities, Duke University, NC State University, NC Central University, and UNC-Chapel Hill, as well as the Authors Alliance. They are:
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Anne Gilliland, JD, MSLIS (project director) Scholarly Communications Officer, UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries |
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Will Cross, JD, MSLS, MA Director, Open Knowledge Center and Head of Information Policy, NCSU Libraries |
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Kate Dickson, JD, MA, MSLS Copyright Librarian, Duke University Libraries |
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Dave Hansen, JD, MSLS Executive Director, Authors Alliance |
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Patrick Roughen, JD, PhD Interim Dean and Associate Professor, School of Library and Information Sciences, North Carolina Central University |
The Library Copyright Institute is funded from a variety of sources. Duke, UNC, NCSU and NCCU have all contributed in a variety of ways. Its success is also built on the generous time and commitment of expert lawyers and librarians from around the United States.
Portions of the project have also been funded by grants. The pilot for the project was funded by the Institute for Museum and Library Services, IMLS Grant RE‐87‐18‐0081‐18. The full and preliminary grant proposal documents can be found here. The final results of the initial pilot, including the full set of instructional materials, a report on the Institute and lessons learned, and survey data is available here. Starting in September 2020, IMLS awarded a full project grant, RE-246377-OLS-20, to build on the success of the Library Copyright Institute planning grant to scale this model of sustainable, comprehensive copyright education for academic librarians across the United States.
