2. Copyright Information and Librarian´s New Role

The purpose of this presentation is to share thoughts and ideas on how to increase interest and knowledge among librarians about intellectual property issues.

Intellectual property issues have become more important in publishing, access and reuse of scientific research but it is not an easy transition. Often, copyright is seen as a difficult area in society with problems in balancing authors’ rights and the community use of research and cultural works. This is complicated by rapid changes in technology and the ever increasing impact of the internet.

Libraries promote institutional repositories and help authors to understand and retain their rights as well as advocating for open access and increasing the visibility of research. The complex nature of digital publications presents various problems regarding licenses and regulations. These new services require a range of new skills and expertise within libraries. A better understanding of copyright and how to use copyrighted material is needed to support teaching and research. It is necessary to provide a wider understanding of copyright and not only focus on legal aspects.

The importance of law reformation and the librarian´s role has been highlighted during 2014. Several European studies have been made to investigate copyright literacy among librarians. These studies have shown a lack of knowledge and a need to add copyright to the Library and Information Science curriculum. Librarians have to acquire skills, confidence and legitimacy to work with copyright guidance. Librarians need to stay informed and by sharing experiences and embracing these activities in our daily routines we can build knowledge and confidence.

Karlstad University Library has been working with copyright guidance over a long period of time. Every copyright question is unique and rather complex, which is why we try to foster close cooperation between librarians and faculty. Subject librarians play an important role in supporting academic scholarship. We believe intellectual property issues in libraries have received too little attention and so we have established a network of Swedish librarians to increase interest in copyright issues. We have studied several web resources to identify existing and future needs.

The poster will give a report on the findings on staff skills, roles and required competencies. We hope to inspire librarians to discuss their roles in the pursuit of intellectual property and copyright enforcement.