Technologies grow in complexity. The number of digital collections in libraries is expanding. Managing the copyright obligation of those resources is a significant task for library staff. Liberty, Softlink IC’s library management system (LMS), includes a Copyright module. It is designed to make it easier for library staff to manage copyright obligations.

What is Copyright and What is Work?

Copyright ensures authors and creators have rights over their work. This can include the right to permit or deny the reproduction or use of their work. Copyright can include single or bundled rights.

Copyright determines how much of a work can be copied without seeking permission. Copying more of a work than is accepted is dependent on whether the work is out of copyright or the owner has given permission. It secures the work from misuse or plagiarism and applies to works created external to your organization or in-house.

The term “work” is a broad one that covers many things including:

• Books – digital and hard copy
• Journal issues and articles
• Paintings
• Photographs
• Musical works and sound recordings
• Films
• Broadcasts
• Websites and software.

Increasing digital resources means copyright obligations have increased. Library staff are obliged to prove they conform to requirements. They must ensure their borrowers know and accept copyright as applied to titles they access.

An LMS without a copyright management option makes the process very labor intensive.

How Liberty Library Management System Can Help Knowledge Workers

Liberty makes it easy for your library staff to manage their copyright obligations. Our Copyright module allows them to:

• Create customized copyright statements.
• Associate a statement with a resource.

When a borrower finds a title they want to access and clicks on it:

• If a copyright statement is associated with it the statement will display.
• They must accept the statement to view and download the files or attachments associated with that resource.

The process also applies to borrowers using their mobile devices to access resources on the library’s online catalog.

Liberty then records the borrower, resource, and copyright details each time any applicable resource is accessed. Authorised staff can access and report on those details via the Management interface.

Want to know more about our Copyright module? Contact us for more information.