Discussion for May 2020

@Elizabeth our ebook collection is definitely getting a workout with the isolation rules. The ebooks are definitely much more expensive to purchase for the library as a rule here too. You really have to weigh up how many uses you will get, considering many will expire at some point.

@Penny Waring @Stephanie e-books are getting much more use at the moment. I would be interested to see if usage drops again once schools are back or if this was good enough to engage students longer term. I don't think they will ever replace the physical copy but do feel that they may be better value for money in the future.

@Elizabeth The system we use to run our ebooks provides a breakdown of the number of books borrowed and the number of users by month, so I'm planning to track the numbers and see what happens. Partly out of curiosity, partly so I can see where best to target the library resources. It is possible we may see peaks and troughs even after a more normal routine returns because the e-library is available to them over the holidays too, when for obvious reasons the school library is closed. So it is possible we may see a rise then now they know the system exists that perhaps dips when they can get into the physical library. But we shall see.

@hp I would agree with you here. I think it is important that school librarians have an awareness and lead by example through best practice. It is definitely important not to be the copyright police :) but would be nice to be known as the go-to person if any teacher had a question...

@Elizabeth Agree. Definitely lead by example and to be more confident in aspects of legislation. (Might even refer people to this extract.)

I think the policing role is taking things too far, but I do strongly feel that it is within our role to make the staff aware of how to comply with copyright rules, and to model best practice. This is part of teaching good digital citizenship and facilitating participatory culture, which I see as being at the forefront of the work of TLs.

That in particular the use of VLE's to disseminate lessons although perhaps viewed as OK due to password security restrictions can and does prove problematic for licensing agreements

@hp Agree with this and the useful examples of free copyright sites.

That the use of digital learning environments, whilst providing opportunities for alternative styles of learning, also come with their own set of legal complications which need to be taken into consideration. The opportunity to share documents to far more people in one time means that VLEs can unwittingly infringe copyright if they are just treated in the same way as a real world classroom.

@hp Yes, definitely focus on the positives, the can-do rather than rules. (it's kidology, isn't it?)

I think, whilst highlighting the really important don'ts to be safe, the main thing would be to focus on what people can do. I think people take more aware from training sessions if they are provided with useful ideas that they can use. So it would seem better to focus on things like where they can find creative commons material and so on.

I would agree that focusing on what you CAN do is important. Also offering some tips to make teachers' lives easier - quick and easy ways to acknowledge sources, ways to track reasonable portions, ensuring if a reasonable portion is uploaded to the LMS, that it is removed when the course is finished, etc. Findings ways to shortcut the time it takes/the effort involved in complying with copyright would be one way to put a positive spin for staff.

@Penny Waring That is really interesting. I have never seen a job advert for a school librarian in the UK with this type of specialism needed. I think it just shows that many schools in the UK have a very different understanding of the role of the school librarian. To be asked to have such a specialism would need a decent pay grade and often here the school librarian is paid as support staff. Someone to manage the library itself and little more...

I don’t think they do or not that I am aware of.

@Jo I would agree with you! I think everyone expects teachers to know but why would they. We have just read what a minefield it is so maybe it is a head in the sand kind of thing...

@Elizabeth Much the same here. I'm not sure teachers see this as a priority. Their workload already demands so much of them, and feel they would see this as an addition. They know the basic rules, (and are aware of legal requirement) and to be fair, some do check with me, before copying, but I'm not convinced they'd do this voluntarily. It would have to be part of INSET, I agree.

@Elizabeth in Australia most schools are affiliated with either the relevant state education department or other governing body (eg for religious institute schools) and these bodies take care of the licencing. I think you would find in Australia that most librarians are savvy to what licences the school has and what they can and can't do. Getting this information across to the staff is the key issue. At a previous school, we provided 'mandatory' copyright training in summary form, and this stimulated a LOT of queries from teachers in the coming months. Even if teachers don't know the licences/rules, they know they can come to the TL and get the right advice.

@Penny Waring This sounds amazing Penny. It would be great if this were mandatory in every school but I fear that it would currently terrify most school librarians as their knowledge would not, at this point, be good enough. They would need training themselves in order to be the 'go to' person for this.

@Elizabeth And also for us to model best-practice with all of the resources we create. For example, I always model proper referencing with any sources I refer to in a presentation, and point out where I have sources images and what cc licence applies.

@micwag this also tends to be an issue in my context. As a teacher-librarian who has teaching load, I have offered to put the correct acknowledgements in place before a resource is uploaded to our LMS, for example. It puts copyright in the spotlight for staff, but I agree, it isn't really their priority most of the time!

@Penny Waring That is a good idea Penny. If you are sharing content then share the acknowledgment too. Making it easy for teachers to just grab it. Allows you to follow up if you notice it is missing to say..."Did you notice that I even add the credit for you...." Or "Don't forget to use the credit too when you copy this..."

@Penny Waring Hi Penny, thanks so much for joining in. Yes it is UK based and I don't know enough about copyright generally to know what the differences are between countries. What I would say is that this chapter made me realise that there is far more to copyright than I actually realised. I think as school librarians it would be impossible for us to know all of this anyway but a basic understanding, which would be roughly the same for both countries, is a good idea. I don't know that there is enough guidance for UK school librarians either but there are websites out there that are trying to help but are not that well known https://copyrightliteracy.org/ is for universities. Emmily Stannard has worked with copyright for years and is now a school librarian, she writes a nice blog for schools which can be found here http://copyright4education.blogspot.com/. She recommends checking here for updated information http://www.copyrighthub.org/

I agree with the comments below - I find copyright can be a huge mindfield especially when it comes to digital content so I found the chapter informative.

@Jo Thanks for joining our discussion Jo. I am really glad you found the chapter useful.