Morrison, C.M.

Secker, J.

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Secker, J. & Morrison, C.M. (2016). Understanding Librarians’ Experiences of Copyright: Initial Findings from a Phenomenographic Study of UK Librarians. Paper presented at the 4th European Conference on Information Literacy (ECIL), 10-13 Oct 2016, Prague, Czech Republic. City Research OnlineOriginal citation: Secker, J. & Morrison, C.M. (2016). Understanding Librarians’ Experiences of Copyright: Initial Findings from a Phenomenographic Study of UK Librarians. Paper presented at the 4th European Conference on Information Literacy (ECIL), 10-13 Oct 2016, Prague, Czech Republic. Permanent City Research Online URL: http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/17638/ Copyright & reuseCity University London has developed City Research Online so that its users may access the research outputs of City University London's staff. Copyright © and Moral Rights for this paper are retained by the individual author(s) and/ or other copyright holders.  All material in City Research Online is checked for eligibility for copyright before being made available in the live archive. URLs from City Research Online may be freely distributed and linked to from other web pages. Versions of researchThe version in City Research Online may differ from the final published version. Users are advised to check the Permanent City Research Online URL above for the status of the paper.EnquiriesIf you have any enquiries about any aspect of City Research Online, or if you wish to make contact with the author(s) of this paper, please email the team at publications@city.ac.uk.151 Understanding Librarians’ Experiences of Copyright: Initial Findings from a Phenomenographic Study of UK Librarians   Jane Secker London School of Economics, UK, j.secker@lse.ac.uk  Chris Morrison University of Kent, UK, c.morrison@kent.ac.uk    In 2014/15, two researchers undertook a survey to investigate the ‘copyright literacy’ of over 600 librarians in the UK (Morrison and Secker, 2015), following reform of copyright legislation. The survey highlighted gaps in librarians’ knowledge, identified training requirements in the sector, and provided comparative data to a number of other countries. The research originated from a project funded by the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science, reported previously at ECIL (Todorova et al, 2014). This paper presents findings from several focus groups to explore copyright with academic librarians. The survey results suggested that the confidence of UK librarians compared favourably to other countries in terms of their copyright knowledge and UK libraries were more likely to have a copyright officer. However, the level of knowledge about copyright across the sector was mixed; copyright played a small part in the role of many information professionals. The survey indicated that many respondents were keen to develop their knowledge but that librarians found copyright to be a source of anxiety. With this in mind, we decided to gather qualitative data to explore these issues further. Drawing on literature in the education (Akerlind, 2005) and information literacy fields (Yates, Partridge and Bruce, 2012), we decided to use phenomenography to explore variations in how librarians experience copyright. In early 2016, we undertook several focus groups with academic librarians to test out this methodology. Our interim findings suggest that librarians experience copyright in different ways dependent on their role. There are clear pockets of expertise. For example, research support librarians routinely advise academics about open access, whereas librarians supporting teaching often provide advice about copying under the UK’s collective licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. However, many librarians find copyright queries challenging. They appear to view copyright queries differently than other library enquiries and often feel giving a clear-cut answer can be more difficult. The ambiguity surrounding copyright and the need to make a risk assessment often causes them to doubt their knowledge, leading to anxiety. The research also considered the impact of a specialist copyright officer and whether having access to an in-house expert affects of librarians’ confidence when dealing with copyright queries. In our research we considered the value of library and information science qualifications and Continuing Professional Development to develop librarians’ knowledge of copyright. Our findings suggest that many librarians rely on colleagues for advice and support. The key to understanding copyright and intellectual property rights is to embed learning within the librarian’ specific work context. We will discuss how understanding the variation in experiences might enhance copyright education. Initial findings suggest that these variations impact on the ways information professionals interact with library users and shape conversations about copyright issues. We will also share their experience of using an interactive, games-based approach to copyright education, that aims to tackle issues of anxiety but also helps to build supportive communities of practice. Finally, we suggest ways to embed copyright more fully into information and digital literacy programmes.  References Åkerlind, G. S. (2005). Variation and commonality in phenomenographic research methods. Higher Education Research & Development, 24(4), 321–334.  Morrison, C., & Secker, J. (2015). Copyright literacy survey. Library and Information Research, 39(121), 75–97. Retrieved from http://www.lirgjournal.org.uk/lir/ojs/index.php/lir/article/view/675 Todorova, T., Trencheva, T., Kurbanoğlu, S., Dogan G., & Horvat, A. (2014). A multinational study on copyright literacy competencies of LIS professionals. Retrieved March 13, 2015 from http://ecil2014.ilconf.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Todorova.pdf  Keywords: copyright, digital literacy, UK, phenomenography, copyright literacy  

Understanding Librarians’ Experiences of Copyright: Initial Findings from a Phenomenographic Study of UK Librarians

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