The 10-Minute Library Advocate #12: Care about Copyright

The 10-Minute Library Advocate Number 12: Care about Copyright

Laws matter for libraries.

They can ensure that local governments have an obligation to run a library. They can decide whether libraries can give internet access or offer services. They can determine what libraries can do with their collections.

Copyright has a particular role in the last of these.

The right rules are essential for libraries to support research and education, to preserve, to lend books.

Clearly understanding copyright takes more than 10 minutes.

But as an important area for advocacy – especially if your laws now aren’t good enough – so it’s useful to know what the laws are.

So, and in the week of the World Intellectual Property Organisation’s (WIPO) Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights, our twelfth 10-Minute Library Advocate Exercise is to find the library provisions in your national copyright law.

Fortunately, you can do this in 10 minutes, thanks to a WIPO Report. This give an overview of what your law says about libraries. You can also look at what other countries do.

Does anything stand out for you? Do you see any problems? Any opportunities?

Good luck!

 

See the introduction and previous posts in our 10-Minute Library Advocate series and join the discussion in social media using the #EveryLibrarianAnAdvocate hashtag!