The Digital Librarian's Legal Handbook: Powerful, Concise Insight into Intellectual Property Rights in 21st-Century Digital Library Collections

Abstract

Information that is digitized has become the norm in the twenty-first century. Libraries acquire more and more information in a digital format, and they continue to convert existing holdings to digital as well. Copyright compliance is one of the biggest challenges rising out of digitization. This issue is a moving target because of rapidly changing technology and varying interpretations of new and existing laws. Often there is no precedent on which to base answers to copyright questions, questions that have never before even been asked. Therefore, it is vital that today's librarian be aware of potential problems involved in copyright compliance and the law. The Digital Librarian's Legal Handbook is the third book in a legal series directed toward librarians, educators, and information professionals. The first two titles were published in 2006 and 2008, respectively. The editor's foreword in The Digital Librarian's Legal Handbook states that each monograph in the series has the goal of providing “practical, readable information drawn from sound legal analysis on a variety of legal topics” (p. xii). The author of this third volume, John N. Gathegi, is a professor at the School of Information Science at the University of South Florida and is a practicing attorney, researcher, and published author in the fields of intellectual property rights, information and personal security, media law, and access to legal information. He is well qualified to speak to the problem of digital legality and responsibility pertaining to librarians working in both special and public libraries. The Digital Librarian's Legal Handbook is a small but detailed book consisting of thirteen chapters, with references at the end of each chapter, six appendixes, and an index. Very briefly, chapters 1 to 12 cover a review of intellectual property issues, special considerations for digital collections, parameters of legal ownership including duration and acquisition of rights, fair use, digital licensing, infringement and consequences, any exceptions, and finally, the requirements for library protection against potential violations. The last chapter covers international aspects of copyright. Each chapter has a brief summary section titled “notable points” and a boxed checklist of compliance questions for the librarian to ask when evaluating compliance. These points and checklists are reproduced for quick reference in appendixes three and four, respectively. Appendix five is also valuable in listing resources to help in locating copyright owners. Chapter one is titled “Introduction to Legal Issues in Digital Libraries.” This chapter is a terrific overview for any librarian on many copyright, fair use, and privacy issues, which seem to affect every library almost all the time. The remaining chapters can stand alone in content and need not be read sequentially. The Digital Librarian's Legal Handbook is so comprehensive that it is hard to imagine the author failing to address any important issue confronting a library that collects digital material. In that respect, its potential usefulness is not debatable. However, it seems that the average library would not really need much of this information. That fact, combined with the significant cost of the volume and the certainty that frequent changes in the law can be expected, makes the suitability of this book questionable for many budget-conscious libraries. The publishers plan to continue this series with topics emphasizing licensing, use of public library spaces, gifts, privacy, and confidentiality. All librarians confront these issues in varying degrees and, therefore, need to be familiar with current information pertaining to these laws in order to best protect their libraries and their users from potential violations, whether deliberate or accidental.