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In most institutions and organizations, if you have a legal question you head over to the legal department. When someone has a copyright question, however, they often head over to the library or information centre to discuss it with the librarian or information professional responsible for copyright and licensing issues. When did this shift occur, and why?
1. WHY LIBRARIANS?
The reasons that the role of answering copyright and licensing questions has become the domain of librarians are as myriad as the facets of copyright. In librarians' primary function as guardians of content and gatekeepers to this content, from research materials to music and image collections, much of what librarians routinely encounter consists of copyright-protected works. Even where the content may be in the public domain, permitted use of this content is subject to the copyright knowledge of the librarian. For example, a librarian may provide access to a physical copy of an article but not permit it to be reproduced; in another circumstance the librarian may make a copy of the original article and put that copy on reserve for patron access; in a third example, a librarian may provide access to an article to a professor advising the professor that she may make a class set of the article by photocopying or posting it in an online course or electronic reserve. In these situations, the actions of the librarian and access to the article may be governed by copyright law and the librarian's application of the law.
The increased role of the librarian providing access to copyright-protected materials is also an effect of the everincreasing amount of electronic content being licensed rather than physical works (such as print books) being acquired by libraries. Such content includes electronic databases and periodicals and journals. It is the librarian who evaluates which electronic content to acquire, who will be using that electronic content (students, interns, employees, faculty, researchers, consultants), how the content will be used (on library's premises or remotely), where the content will be used (just in Canada or may it be accessed by authorized persons anywhere in the world), and how the content may be shared, stored and redistributed. With this knowledge surrounding the entire process relating to electronic content, again, it is...