Copyright specialists in libraries and cultural institutions: findings from a recent survey

In March 2017 we carried out a survey to investigate further the role of copyright specialists in libraries and cultural and educational institutions. We publicised the survey on this blog and had 110 responses from universities, FE colleges, schools, museums, galleries and a host of other organisations.The survey was designed to explore:

• The value and status of copyright specialists within educational and cultural institutions
• Their responsibilities and the ways in which they deliver copyright education
• The training and support that the copyright specialist receives
• The way copyright support is provided across institutions particularly in the absence of a copyright specialist.

After a busy summer, the research team which also includes  Philippa Hatch from Imperial College London, have finally written up a summary of the findings. We plan to do further analysis on the data to write this up for publication and also plan to compare our data with the survey carried out in Canada by Erin Patterson. We also plan to release an open, anonymised data set if any one else wishes to do research.