Presentation given by Jane Secker and Chris Morrison at ECIL 2017, St Malo, France 18th September

1. Creative and Collaborative
Approaches to Copyright Literacy:
experiences from the UK
Jane Secker and Chris Morrison
City, University of London
& University of Kent
ECIL 2017: 18-22 September, St Malo, France

3. “Excited - like the idea
that copyright is a
gateway. Should enable
access to culture, rather
than barrier”
“Warm and Fuzzy”
“Love it! It's kept
me in the lifestyle
to which I have
become
accustomed”

4. “Confused,
cautious,
faintly
nauseous!”
“Frustrated,
confused. Can I
risk it? Can my
organisation
risk it?”
“Worried, anxious”
“Like the
receiver (and
thrower) of a
hot potato”

5. Copyright literacy is….
“acquiring and demonstrating the
appropriate knowledge, skills and
behaviours to enable the ethical
creation and use of copyright
material.”
Secker and Morrison, 2016, p.211

6. • Slide to illustrate the key is embedding
copyright literacy throughout our institutions
• Institution logo from the Publishing Trap with
copyright literacy logo?
Embedding Copyright
Literacy

7. Phenomenography

8. Copyright as an experience
Category 4:
Copyright is an
opportunity for
negotiation,
collaboration and
co-construction
of understanding
Category 1: Copyright is a problem
Category 2:
Copyright is complicated and
shifting
Category 3:
Copyright is a
known entity
requiring coherent
messages

9. Category 1: copyright is a problem
“It’s not like other areas where I can help people
and people want an answer…. I have done this job
for years and I didn’t used to get these sorts of
queries.”
Focus Group participant, January 2016

10. Category 2: copyright is complicated
“For non-copyright queries the answer is yes or
no, or a series of instructions. For copyright
queries the actual answer is maybe, maybe – and
that is why it is different - you can’t give them the
answer they want.”
Focus Group participant, January 2016

11. Category 3: copyright is a known entity
“….the internet has made that all the more
important hasn’t it? Otherwise you are laying open
the institution to getting into trouble with
publishers if they don’t adhere to what they are
supposed to be doing.”
Focus Group participant, January 2016

12. Category 4: copyright is an opportunity
“I always think when I am explaining [copyright]
to people I would like to be more aggressive … in
terms of these are our collections and we manage
them properly and in so doing so we might make
them openly available because it is within our gift
to do and no one is being affected if we put 100
year old census data online.”
Focus Group participant, January 2016

13. Critical copyright literacy
Education
not training
Balance between
content and approach
Getting comfortable
with uncertainty
Avoiding binaries
?

14. The role of the
copyright officer

15. Headline findings ….
66% of institutions in
the UK have a
designated copyright
officer (higher in Higher
Education)
74% are paid more than
£30K per annum
They are 4 times more
likely to be a librarian
than to have legal
training
63% of them are based
in the Library
65% of institutions have
other staff also involved
in copyright matters

16. What do they do?
Providing advice and
support for staff
Writing printed or
online guidance
Advising on/obtaining
copyright permissions
Providing advice and
support for students /
visitors / library users
Running workshops and
training
Advice on collective
licensing for the
organisation
73
61
60
56
50
46

17. Training and support
No compulsory
copyright training in
78% of institutions
Training delivered to
staff, researchers,
PhD students, other
students
Workshops, lectures,
guides and web
pages most popular
type of support
Copyright specialists
relied on external
training and peer
group support

18. Building confidence and
resilience

19. Communities
of practice

20. Empowering the UK
Copyright Literacy
Community
Licences
Exceptions

21. Copyright the
Card Game v2.0
Works usages licences exceptions

23. The Publishing
Trap

25. Further reading
Morrison, C and Secker J. (2015) Copyright Literacy in the UK: a survey of
librarians and other cultural heritage sector professionals. Library and
Information Research. 39 (121)
http://www.lirgjournal.org.uk/lir/ojs/index.php/lir/article/view/675
Morrison, C & Secker, J. (2017). Understanding librarians’ experiences of
copyright: findings from a phenomenographic study of UK information
professionals. Library Management, 38 (6/)
Secker, J and Morrison, C. (2016) Copyright and E-learning: a guide for practitioners.
Facet publishing: London. Chapter 6: Copyright education and training
available online.
Todorova, Tania et. al. (2017) Information Professionals and Copyright
Literacy: A Multinational Study. Library Management, 38 (6/7).
Todorova, T., Trencheva, T., Kurbanoğlu, S., Dogan G., & Horvat, A. (2014)
A Multinational Study on Copyright Literacy Competencies of LIS
Professionals. Presentation given at 2nd European Conference on Information
Literacy (ECIL) held in Dubrovnik. October 2014. Retrieved March 13, 2015
from http://ecil2014.ilconf.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Todorova.pdf
https://copyrightliteracy.org @UKCopyrightLit

26. Image Credits
Slide 1, 2,, 19, 20, 23: Taken by Jane Secker / Chris Morrison CC-BY
Slide 3: Photo by Amber Litzinger https://flic.kr/p/bEXT6H CC-BY
Slide 4: Panic by Nate Stelner https://flic.kr/p/us2aa Public Domain
Slide 7: Phenomena by Nick Ares https://flic.kr/p/6m6uYA CC-BY
Slide 13: Critical Copyright Literacy: images from Open clipart
Slide 14: Lego police officer by Martin @pokipsie Rechsteiner
https://flic.kr/p/qmMDmS CC-BY
Slide 18: Brene Brown book cover / You Tube image all rights reserved. Photo of Jane
Secker in the Coliseum CC-BY
Slide 22: Copyright the Card Game at CILIP Wales Conference © Whole Picture used
with permission
Slide 24: Kitchener Wants You by Alfred Leete, modified by Chris Morrison