Come play Copyright the Card Game at the CILIP Conference!

Copyright is an important subject for all librarians but one that often causes anxieties. This summer we’ve presented at three events where we asked librarians to tell us how they feel about copyright and the results are not that surprising. At one end of the scale we have librarians who feel nervous, scared, apprehensive and annoyed by copyright. A few librarians are exhilarated and empowered by copyright, but a large number of librarians are just confused and frustrated.

Some of the anxiety is related to the complexity of copyright law and fact the law is open to interpretation. Many institutions employ dedicated copyright officers to deal with specialist queries, and whilst we see the benefit in this we also recognise the drawbacks. Without adequate resources and planning it can lead to the knowledge to get trapped in a silo where all queries are dealt with by a copyright specialist alone. We believe it’s important that all librarians learn the basics of copyright to help them in their professional lives.

Next week we will be running a workshop at the CILIP Conference in Manchester on 5th July which will be a taster session based on Copyright the Card Game. The game has proved a valuable way of teaching librarians about copyright in an engaging and fun way. During this workshop participants will play an abridged version of the game, as well as get ideas about how to use the resource in their own teaching and professional development. Copyright does not need to be a subject to be afraid of. Through using the Card Game, and other playful and creative approaches to copyright education, we will provide participants with a framework for tackling copyright queries as well as a useful set of resources and further information.

We’re also looking forward to hearing Carla Hayden’s keynote at the CILIP Conference, catching up with colleagues, and attending some of the other parallel sessions. You can also find us on the CILIP Information Literacy Group (ILG) stand if you want to catch up, and ILG will be promoting the #FactsMatter campaign which is being jointly run by CILIP and the group. If you are coming to the conference next week we hope to see you!