Professional Development

On Wednesday, March 4th I traveled to Elon University to attend the workshop, Copyright Law in the Digital Age, sponsored by the State Library of North Carolina. Laura Gasaway, Professor of Law and the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at UNC-Chapel Hill, led a comprehensive workshop that covered the numerous sections of the copyright law and how these sections impacted libraries and archives. The first third of the workshop was an overview of the law in entirety, breaking down legal definitions and wording, and the history and development of the copyright laws that we use today. The second third of the day was spent examining the sections and subsections relevant to libraries, archives, and other non-profit institutions. This section of the day provided most useful with the question and answer portion. The 30 attendees were broken into 6 groups and given 12 index cards to write on. We were asked to agree on and write down 12 questions concerning copyright; no question too stupid to ask! She then collected them and reviewed the questions and answers throughout the after-lunch portion of the workshop. Finally, the last third of the day was spent on current copyright issues in regards to the digital age. We discussed the current copyright sections pertaining to digital media, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and recent legislation and cases pending (both academic related and big business related).

Overall, I highly recommend anyone remotely interesting in copyright law or recent copyright cases attend this course! Ms. Gasaway does a wonderful job breaking down the legality of the sections into everyday examples and scenarios. Additionally, this workshop provided many suggestions for libraries interested in developing copyright policies and taking proactive, precautionary measures. Laura Gasaway will be doing this same presentation/workshop through a webcast on July 29, 2009 if interested. If anyone would like to borrow the workbook provided, please stop by!

Heather