CILIP London meeting – the first one I have been to. I chose to go to this event as it was focussed on copyright. Copyright is an area I’m familiar with, but I certainly don’t know all the ins and outs and as an information professional I think it’s something important to keep up with. This session was mainly focussed on copyright issues in higher education, not an area I work in, but it was good to gain a better understanding of the current situation all the same.
The guest speaker was Kate __- from Middlesex University. She started by going through all the developments in technology that have changed the way people receive and use information. For example, gone from photocopying and scanning printed articles to being able to print in 3D! Information is accessed and read from multiple devices from multiple locations.
Published and rights owners have been trying to keep up with the changes and implement more and more measures, For example, the EU Directive on copyright ownership has been increased from 50 years to 70 years.
Distance learning and MOOCs come with various copyright issues. Sharing information on a VLE to students, particularly those abroad, cause various copyright problems. Academics enjoy the ease of uploading and sharing information with their students on the VLE and become frustrated when they are told they may not be able to do so due to copyright permissions.
Increasingly publishers are encouraging epublications but these come with country dependent access problems and may incur additional costs to Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA).
Kate said that due to all the different publisher permissions and licensing requirements, often confusing to everyone (!) JISC have created an online database , Knowledge Base +, that lists of the permissions for all the publishers, organisations etc. Apparently the CLA have promised a tool to manage reporting and license checking, but it has not surfaced yet. Talis Aspire have also introduced a digital content tool, but Kate advised it was expensive and still in the early stages of development.
I hope that makes sense, as my knowledge of copyright and issues in academic settings isn’t great, there’s a risk it may not!
I look forward to seeing what the next briefing focuses on.
emmabettyhughes 