Contextualizing Copyright: Fostering Students' Understanding of Their Rights and Responsibilities as Content Creators

Abstract

Intersections between scholarly communication and information literacy are increasingly being explored by librarians, both on campuses and in conversations with colleagues. 1 Traditional information literacy instruction topics are related to the core issues in scholarly communication, although often instruction librarians and scholarly communication librarians address these issues from different directions. An over-arching theme to these issues is one of openness: who can access what, from where, for how long, to what end. As a scholarly communication librarian at a mid-size liberal arts university that in the past two decades has strengthened its research profile, I view faculty as my primary constituency. Nevertheless, through our credit-bearing library instruction program, and close ties to the Graduate School in support of our Electronic Theses and Dissertations program, I frequently interact with students. Through guest lectures and targeted support, I have opportunities to instruct students on copyright, author rights, open access, and the scholarly publishing system. In so doing, I help them understand their roles as creators and contributors to the knowledge ecosystem.