Over the past year copyright has been in the forefront for most librarians and for many legislators, lawyers and law teachers.For the past year, Information Outlook has included a copyright column each month to highlight areas of particular concern and to update members on what is happening with proposed amendments to the Copyright Act that will affect our working lives as information professionals.
The
Copyright Committee intends to continue this practice over the next year
as a part of our charge to educate SLA members about copyright.Columns
will be written by members of the committee and by guest authors.With
the Business and Finance Division, the committee will co-sponsor a program
on shrinkwrap and click wrap licensing of information products at the annual
conference in Minneapolis.Moreover,
in addition to its regular business meeting at the annual conference, the
committee is planning to reinstitute the open meeting with members where
individual members can come to discuss copyright matters with the committee.
Special Libraries Association has long been active in national copyright advocacy, but in recent years, the pace has escalated considerably.There is an on-going consortium of library associations to develop a unified response on copyright matters whenever this is possible.The committee will continue to monitor legislative matters and work with John Crosby, Director, Government Relations, to determine what SLA’s response should be to various legislative initiatives dealing with copyright in the U.S., Canada and through the World Intellectual Property Organization.Additionally, we will attempt to advise individual SLA members with copyright concerns. (Please e-mail the chair with your questions).
The 1998-99 committee consists of Larry Besant, Dee Chipps, Lolly Gasaway, Jack Hurd and Barbara Walker.Among us we have a wide range of experience with copyright including Canadian copyright.The Committee wants to take this year to assess how it is carrying out its charge and determine if there are other activities that it should undertake for the Association.To this end, we need your help.Please answer the following questions and send your response to the chair.
1.What topics do you want to see discussed in Information Outlook’s Copyright Corner?Is there a particular expert you think we should approach about writing a column?
2.Does the Association
website contain sufficient information about copyright to assist you in
your work?
3.Do
you need formal updates at the annual meeting on copyright matters or will
the open meeting satisfy your needs?
4 .Are there statements
of good practice or model policies that the committee might develop that
would help you with copyright concerns?
Your
response to these questions will help direct the SLA Copyright Committee
over the next year.
As
an aside, the chair and Professor Sarah K. Wiant are beginning work on
a new edition of their 1994 copyright book published by Special Libraries
Association.It is targeted for a
2000 publication date.
Lolly
Gasaway, Chair SLA Copyright Committee
laura_gasaway@unc.edu