Teaching intellectual property rights as part of the information literacy syllabus

Abstract

PurposeTo argue that in the knowledge economy, those who are expert in understanding intellectual property issues, such as librarians and information professionals, have a special responsibility for creating policy, encouraging understanding and resolving legal disputes and conflicts unique to this aspect of the information society. One way of achieving this is through the educational impact of systematic information literacy programmes which include intellectual property issues as part of the syllabus.Design/methodology/approachAn overview of current practice and current opinion.FindingsThat the current culture, especially in higher education towards intellectual property rights, remains both confused and confusing, above all for the “information illiterate” starting out on degree‐level programmes. Attitudes and policies need to be clarified so that a coherent approach to a range of different but related intellectual property (IP) matters such as plagiarism, self‐archiving on research repositories and respect for commercially owned copyright material is uniformly developed. Debate must be differentiated from policy which in turn must be implemented via the information literacy (IL) syllabus.Research limitations/ImplicationsThis is a statement of opinion that could be tested by practical case study investigation.Practical implicationsSuggests that information literacy programmes be promoted as a way of enhancing students' understanding of intellectual property issues.Originality/valueThis paper brings together different IP issues which are not normally considered together, such as institutional research repositories, student plagiarism and commercial IP entitlements. It points out ways of unifying these in a single coherent philosophy of information society rights and ownership. This philosophy should form one of the mainstays of the information literacy syllabus.