Hot on the heels of Eurovision last night, we are delighted to announce that the Copyright Literacy International team will be launching a new survey, to investigate levels of copyright literacy among Library and Information Studies students. This survey will compliment the work the team have done to investigate copyright literacy in the library and information profession in 14 countries. So far the following countries have signed up: Turkey, France, Bulgaria, UK, Romania, Norway, Hungary, Portugal, USA, Lithuania and Finland.There is still time to get involved and so any countries that wish to join the study are welcome to get in touch using our contact form.
In our experience, knowledge about copyright law is often covered fairly briefly in professional qualifications for librarians, archivists and those in the cultural heritage sector. However, this research will add to our knowledge of the sector and also provide international comparative data. The original survey found that many newly qualified staff in the UK said they had had little or no training in copyright. We also spoke to CILIP to gather data about the extent to which library schools include copyright in the curriculum – it was a mixed picture. It can be difficult to predict the types of queries that might arise given the wide range of roles that exist in libraries, museums and galleries. However, what seems clear is that copyright will continue to be an issue that library and information professionals need to have a good working knowledge of, to effectively undertaken their work. If you work in a library school, then look out for details of the survey and please do encourage your students to complete it!
Copyright Literacy 
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