UK Copyright Literacy Review

The purpose of this research was to survey the levels of copyright literacy amongst UK librarians and information professionals in all sectors including the cultural heritage sector (e.g. museums, galleries and archives). The UK survey was part of a wider international copyright literacy project which originated in the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science [Todorova et al, 2014]. The reason for carrying out the research was to highlight any gaps in knowledge and training requirements in the relevant UK sectors as well as gather data to compare with copyright literacy levels in other countries that were participating in the survey. It is believed that this is the biggest survey of its kind to have been carried out in the UK. The researchers hoped that the survey would support a better understanding of copyright as part of the wider development of digital literacies within UK libraries and cultural institutions. There was a significant reform of the copyright regime in the UK during 2014 which was intended to provide educational and cultural institutions with greater freedoms. Therefore consideration of copyright in the context of information and digital literacy was of particular interest because the impact of the changes to the law on information professionals was not yet understood. Knowledge of copyright exceptions related to libraries and education, could also potentially empower librarians and their users to better exploit copyright protected materials. The study also sought to consider how the impact of copyright support and literacy programmes within institutions could be measured, particularly in light of the need to take full advantage of the new legal landscape

Aggression and violence in healthcare and its impact on nursing students: A narrative review of the literature

Aggression and violence is a significant social problem in many countries and an increasing problem in healthcare settings in which nurses are particularly vulnerable. The literature suggests that aggression and violence has a significant negative impact upon nurses and potentially upon nursing students and can result in these staff members experiencing stress as a direct result of these adverse events. The literature suggests that there is confusion over what constitutes aggression and violence in the workplace and therefore a true lack of understanding of the scale of the problem relating to nursing students. This review proposes that nursing students are indeed at significant risk of aggression and violence in the clinical setting which has the potential to significantly impact their role as a novice carer. Furthermore, aggression and violence can manifest negative stress responses in individuals, therefore, the potential for nursing students to cope with stressful situations shall be presented

Lecture recording in higher education: Risky business or evolving open practice

Reports on a survey into the copyright and intellectual property (IPR) policies of UK higher education institutions with regards to lecture recording. The practice of using institutional semi-automated lecture recording systems is becoming mainstream with 71% of institutions reporting using it in 2016 (UCISA, 2016). However, these systems raise a number of issues related to copyright and IPR that in some cases are documented in specific policy documents. Issues that arise include the consent that is obtained from academic staff, the ownership of the resulting outputs and responsibility and advice given for the use of third party content in the lectures. These issues are also often linked to, or conflated with wider ethical issues such as identity, privacy and academic freedom. The findings from the survey are presented alongside a policy analysis of IPR documents and policies from 11 institutions. These are compared to the guidance provided by Jisc (2015). The findings from the survey reveal that most institutions are still developing their IPR policy with regards to lecture recording, that many institutions seek consent from lecturers, but there is an increasing move towards making lecture recording opt-out as opposed to opt-in. The survey revealed in 94% of cases the lecturers or presenter is responsible for any third party content contained within their lecture and while institutions do offer advice about dealing with third party content, much of it is delivered in a relatively passive way, through agreeing to use the system or by information made available online in guides. The findings from the policy analysis suggest that those institutions with a high level of institutional control tend to have a higher level of comprehensiveness of approach towards lecture recording. Additionally the institutions that provide a higher level of support for copyright advice, have a tendency towards open practice and higher levels of appetite for risk. Good practice advice for institutions and recommendations for further research are presented as part of this study

To boldly go… the librarian's role in text and data mining

The relatively new exception to copyright law that we enjoy in the UK, permitting text and data mining (TDM) for the purposes of non-commercial research, offers potential to further knowledge and make scientific and medical breakthroughs. Importantly, the new exception states that any contractual clause which purports to restrict this exception is automatically null and void. Librarians who manage electronic resources and datasets can assist researchers greatly. However, in order to do this they need a robust understanding of the law and to be assertive in their ­relationships with publishers when negotiating or interpreting licence agreements. This article examines the ways in which librarians can facilitate the work of researchers who want to use TDM. It also argues that librarians need to encourage researchers to exploit the new copyright exceptions as key partners in the research process

Playing with Copyright

Copyright education has become an important aspect of librarians’ information literacy and scholarly communications activities. These include providing support and delivering teaching sessions for teaching and professional services colleagues, as well as students, researchers and other library users. Since the Covid-19 pandemic and the shift to online and hybrid teaching, it has become increasingly important for lecturers and teachers to understand how licences and copyright exceptions apply to teaching and learning activities. The need for this has been documented by practitioners and scholars around the world (Hudson and Wragg, 2020; Craig and Tarantino, 2020; Morrison and Secker, 2020).In this paper we will briefly outline the concept of ‘copyright literacy’ as defined by IFLA (2018) and how it has many parallels with teaching other aspects of information literacy. This includes taking a more ‘critical’ approach, where students are encouraged to explore power dynamics within the systems of creation and consumption of information. Copyright education has traditionally been approached in a rather dry, lecture style format. This approach often serves to reinforce the perception of copyright education as the communication of a set of rigid rules to follow. We argue that the creation and use of copyright games, including Copyright the Card Game and The Publishing Trap, has transformed approaches to teaching copyright in recent years and supported a broader, more critical conception of copyright literacy. Both games are licensed as open educational resources and have been adapted and re-used by others in the UK and in other countries around the world. They have also sparked the creation of other copyright games, which are showcased at an annual conference: ICEPOPS – the International Copyright Literacy Event with Playful Opportunities for Practitioners and Scholars.The paper will explore the pedagogic principles behind our games as well as considering the value of games and playfulness when teaching about a subject such as copyright that is known to cause uncertainty and anxiety. We will also reflect on how we adapted both our games for teaching online during the Covid-19 pandemic. Through this process it was important to retain the learning outcomes of the game but also the pedagogical approaches used including the use of teams and point scoring, peer learning, the use of scenarios and of discussion and critical thinking. Finally we will discuss feedback we’ve collected from librarians and others who have played or used our games in their own teaching. We will conclude considering how a critical approach to copyright education aligns with a signature pedagogy of playful learning