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I think that a lot of the staff, in particular, and I would extend that
really to
faculty and students who use our resources, are
sensitive to the news
and the big cases and the fear mongering, in a sense,
about not overstepping
safe space.
The code allows us to work with staff,
with faculty, with students to educate them about what
the principles of fair use really are.
Not that it's a fine, iron-clad set of answers
but it's a set of guidelines to think about as
they look at "What do I put in my course?".
A library staff member who teaches
and is using library resources -- what are they safe in doing?
And how do they provide the attribution and the recognition
for scholarship
and protect the rights of a copyright holder in that process?
And I think that
fair use haven, if you will,
pushing the envelope a little bit, encouraging staff to think about
risk but also think about opportunity at the same time,
is really really critical and why that code
really helps in
getting them to think more broadly about what
their risk
comfort levels are.
It is about risk
but, you know, creating new knowledge and
encouraging new thought
is a risk in and of itself and that's what the academy is really all about is:
How do we use all of the resources and knowledge
and ideas of the past
to create new innovative
thought and ideas in the future?
So we've used the code in a couple of ways.
First and foremost, we did the orientation sessions. And what I found interesting,
for example, were the questions being raised by, say, the chair of our
library committee, on the faculty senate library committee,
in terms of: I didn't know you could do that.
Is that really something that can be done? Do I really own
those sorts of things? Am I really in control of my scholarship?
All this set of questions that now
we can talk about in new and different kinds of ways
and that it's not about
here's the prescription, and if you follow these ninety six steps
you can be assured because this isn't a game in which that works that way.
Our council then has taken
some of our enthusiasm, shared it across the system because we do work
together
and ultimately it is the council at the office of the president
representing all of us together
that is there. And so she's helped us take that to a system-wide level
that will look at how do we make this part of
practice,
not
guidelines or policy, but practice
within the whole university system.
That helps us then get it out to where its recognized by faculty
in their
execution of how to look at fair use.
The code, the whole process not just the final document,
but the whole process of looking at these as important issues and
how can libraries, how can research libraries
take a firm stand against the principles
of scholarship and of the academy and of,
as I said, the creation of new knowledge
the whole essence of the copyright act was to promote
arts and sciences.
The academy forever has been about promoting
the arts and sciences and creating the next generation of scholars. If we're going to
have a a good next generation of scholars, they have to be ready
and able and willing
to deal in this arena of fair use.