You are asked to provide sound advice on copyright to your users, and you must strive to be consistent and fair. Moreover, while working within the spirit of the copyright law, it's also your job as a librarian to protect your patrons' rights to use and share information, whenever legally possible. That said, I would like to suggest five guidelines for librarians dealing with copyright issues. Please note that this advice applies just as well to public librarians, who deal with many of the same issues as their school counterparts. 1 Embrace your role as copyright adviser.
Librarians are the information professionals of American society.
As such, we protect the interests of library users and strive for the free flow of information. Unfettered access to information is critical to a democratic society and essential to schools and other educational institutions. Librarians are the only professionals charged with preserving this access. Thus, it is natural and correct that librarians should be recognized as the copyright experts of the schools, because of who we are and what we represent. Since copyright is a legal doctrine with tremendous impact on information flow, this is not a role we want handled by others.