Copyright, Fair Use and the Digital Age in Academic Libraries: A Review of the Literature

Copyright law in the United States has gained a certain notoriety for its complexity and ambiguity, which has only been compounded by the evolution (or, some would say, revolution) of print resources to electronic resources. The purpose of this literature review is to review the current understanding of copyright law within the context of academic libraries in universities and colleges. Additionally, this review will describe what issues academic librarians face in complying with copyright law in this new digital age while continuing to perform duties such as processing course reserve materials, developing an institutional repository, and maintaining a digital collection. This literature review emphasizes the need for further and continuing education about copyright law among all members of the campus community, and, in particular, academic librarians

Building a Collaborative Digital Collection: A Necessary Evolution in Libraries

Law libraries are losing ground in the effort to preserve information in the digital age. In part, this is due declining budgets, user needs, and a caution born from the great responsibility libraries feel to ensure future access instead of selecting a form that may not survive. That caution, though, has caused others, such as Google, to fill the silence with their vision. Libraries must stand and contribute actively to the creation of digital collections if we expect a voice in future discussion. This article presents a vision of the start of a collaborative, digital academic law library, one that will harness our collective strengths while still allowing individual collections to prosper. It seeks to identify and answer the thorniest issues - including copyright - surrounding digitization projects. It does not presume to solve all of these issues. It is, however, intended to be a call for collective action, to stop discussing the law library of the future and to start building it

Academic Libraries in Cameroon in the Digital Age

Abstract Radical changes in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), and changing context in Higher Education have placed academic libraries in Cameroon in crisis. Unprecedented changes in the information environment caused by ICTs has led to a digital revolution, causing academic libraries no choice but to move from one paradigm to another. Change and transition in this new dispensation is fundamental and irreversible. Consequence academic librarians are embracing new roles to satisfy the incessant changing needs of library patrons. This paper seeks to provide an understanding of academic libraries in Cameroon in the digital era. It takes up one of the critical issues concerning transition from traditional to digital as required in the digital information age. The paper discusses key paradigm shifts, major impetus of change, competencies for academic librarians, new roles and the way forward. The paper examines the situation of academic libraries in Cameroon, and establishes the urgent need for these libraries to accelerate transition to the new paradigm in order to remain relevant. This study is based on an in-depth review of literature and the author’s experience, and personal points of view

Don’t Share This Item! Developing Digital Collections and Services in a Consumer‐Licensed World

Libraries have always faced unique challenges in providing non‐academic content for academic use, but the digital age has brought particular problems of “one size fits all” consumer purchase models and vexing methods of digital rights management (DRM), wrapped up with a large bow of legal uncertainty for many institutions. These proceedings describe some practices for sharing consumer‐licensed popular materials and confronting legal and technical barriers, as well as what some libraries are considering and encountering in applying the law, fair use, user expectations, and common sense in developing collections and services around digital content that is geared directly to end users

Using ICT as a Platform for Effective Information Services Delivery in Information Age: Kenneth Dike Library, University Of Ibadan Experience

Teaching, Learning and Research (TLR) initiatives in the institutions of higher learning, particularly in the University systems in the Information Age, are driven by digital data. Academic Libraries worldwide   are emerging as critical partners in the creation, access, use, and preservation of (TLR) data. Digital stewardship, infrastructural development, economic models, and policies required to administer and protect TLR data, present both new opportunities and challenges for 21st century libraries. Addressed in this write-up are documentations of some of the things that Kenneth Dike Library, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria has achieved, using Information and Communications Technology(ICT) as a platform  to enhance an efficient and a robust information services delivery in pursuant of TLR initiative of the University of Ibadan. Keywords: Information and Communications Technology (ICT), Information Services Delivery (ISD), Academic Libraries (ALs), Digital Ag

Issues related to the adoption of e-books in academic libraries: a literature review

While e-journals have successfully be integrated into library collections, the same cannot be said about e-books. In this paper, the obstacles to e-book adoption in academic libraries is discussed using a review of the English-language literature published over the period 2007 to 2013. Issues identified are the changing roles of libraries in the digital age; collection development strategies; complex e-book purchase models offered to libraries; questions of copyright, licensing and digital rights management; format considerations; and availability of hardware and software on which to read e-books. Libraries continue to face these challenges today

Experiencing the academic library in the Digital Age: From information seeking and user experience to human information interaction

The Digital Age, marked by the prevalent usage of digital technologies and explosion of digital information, has changed the way we communicate and interact with information, and prompts us to think about how it is influencing and transforming user experience with and within academic libraries. For academic libraries whilst their relationships with users may have shifted so too have their audiences. Internationalisation in higher education (HE) institutions has brought greater student diversity and requirements that should be understood to improve student experience and satisfaction. At the heart of HE, academic libraries serve a significant role in students’ learning and researching and their experience in the academic library constitutes an essential part of the learning experience. Within an interpretive paradigm, this thesis explores how international Chinese students experience the UK academic library in the Digital Age. Mixed methods research was conducted with a largely qualitative stance to explore the complexity of library user experience and to investigate library service delivery in order to enhance the future library user experience design. Library log analysis investigated what students do in the academic library through looking into their information seeking behaviour; cognitive mapping and semi-structured interviews were used to examine how students think and feel about the academic library by probing into their user experience. Demonstrating the complexity and multi-layered characteristics of context, this thesis proposed separating contexts to analyse and understand students’ library experience in distinct contexts. The findings developed an original framework theory of ‘context-perception-sense-making’ to depict a holistic picture of students’ library experience, identifying two vital elements, context and perception, which trigger, shape and alter students’ library experience. This thesis brings together the essential components of information seeking behaviour and user experience into the context of the academic library and defines students’ relationships with and within the library in new ways

Public library promotion in a changing society

The UK Government’s ten year strategic vision for public libraries in England notes the investment in the People’s Network in 2002 as a significant step in allowing libraries to fulfil their potential in the digital age. The People’s Network marked a change in services offered by public libraries with the installation of networked computers in almost all public libraries. This change in provision brought an opportunity to attract new patrons into the library. Since then the electronic environment in public libraries has developed, extending access to electronic resources which was initially more prevalent in academic libraries. Yet a recent report shows that public libraries need better marketing and advocacy. This applies at both strategic and patron levels. Recently, a digital paradox noted by British Library Chief Executive, Lynne Brindley was that we are all web residents but there is nothing like face to face. Thus there has to be online promotion, but there also has to be promotion to encourage patrons to visit online. There are examples of successful library initiatives, but libraries can also draw on the techniques used by commercial organizations. This paper considers the promotion of the value of the changing face of public library services and the need for results of promotion to be evaluated so as to inform future development

Determinants and impacts of digital library usage: a survey among selected Iranian universities / Ismail Samadi

In the age of information, digital library (DL) adoption among Iranian universities and academic higher learning institutions has been very common. It is no longer considered as a lavish technological investment, but rather treated as technological need and necessity crucial to the survival of the university. Various studies have revealed that universities and academic higher learning institutions have benefitted from the installation of the digital libraries. In an academic environment, DL usage is purely volitional or optional. Innovative users would effectively use the DL for some specific reasons and objectives, while others may simply ignore it. This situation simply suggests that there are some determining factors that shape the usage behavior of the users. Given that digital libraries (DL) have been implemented in most Iranian universities and academic higher learning institutions, knowledge regarding users’ usage behavior is still very limited. Not much is really known about the extent users; especially students exploit the DL for the purpose of enhancing their performance and productivity. Similarly, little is really known about the factors that shape Iranian students’ DL usage behavior from users’ lenses. To this effect, this study is aimed to investigate the usage behavior of users in a DL environment in selected Iranian universities. In addition, it is also aimed at investigating the determinants of DL usage behavior. Finally, this study also intends to investigate the impact of DL usage behavior among users. The conduct of this study was using a quantitative approach..

Keeping An Old Library New: Academic Libraries in the 21st Century

When the Van Wylen Library opened in January of 1988, it was a beautiful state-of -the-art academic library. Designed by Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson and Abbott of Boston, it was awarded the Award of Excellence for Library Architecture from the American Institute of Architects. It had moved to an automated library information system (ILS) including an online catalog, the year it opened and was designed based on the latest technology of the time. We all know, what has happened in the 25 years since. The age of digital information has hurtled us down a path of change, so revolutionary, so fast that many have predicted that libraries will cease to exit. While the reports of our demise have been greatly exaggerated, academic libraries have changed dramatically in the past 25 years. This presentation gives an overview of the physical, technological and social changes that have kept the Van Wylen Library an exceptional academic library in the 21st century