Week Twelve (11/15/10 - 11/21/10)

This week, we returned to copyright and although it was still a difficult topic to understand, I'd like to think that I am able to grasp it a little more than I had at the beginning of the semester.  What I find particularly helpful is that my classmates are as confused as I am - some even more.  The idea is helpful because I realize that I am not tragically behind my peers; I am getting what I should be, learning on the "job," and will get more as I go along my library way.  Admittedly, though, I do freeze up when I hear the word copyright.  Perhaps it will always be this way.

The information on copyright (and many of the things I have learned in this class!) has helped me tremendously in my classes this semester.  For one class, I needed to make a book trailer and the resources that I found (personally and through the class Diigo group) led me to public domain music and pictures that I used in the trailer.  Another example - I am working on an assignment for one of my other classes and we are setting up a Diigo page for resources that we will be using for the assignment and will be creating Diigo pages for students that visit the library.  I think it is so wonderful to see the knowledge we are gaining this semester be practically applied and it makes me love librarianship even more than I did at the beginning of the semester!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!

Week Five (9/26/10 - 10/2/10)

Image by Stephen Baum and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Question_copyright.svg#filelinks)

As I put the image above into the blog, I realized that this is my second question mark image of the semester.  Considering this is week 5, it doesn't terrify me too much, but it does serve to show me that confusion may be a trend for me throughout the semester.  That being said, I don't think saying I am confused about fair use and copyright is being too hard on myself.  The reality is, both areas are extremely complex and just when you think you have figured them out, the ambiguity appears and you are right  back at stage one.

A reason for most of my struggle - mostly because I am hard-headed - is that I cannot understand why educators are not exempt from fair use and copyright issues when the materials they are duplicating are used for educational purposes only.  Yes, I do get there people will always take things a step beyond and make copies for personal use or for outside sources but I am speaking of those who play by the rules and only use the materials in their classrooms. 

We are in a time of budget crisis.   School districts have very few resources, as do individual schools and libraries, and even our public libraries are seeing drastic cuts, so how are our children supposed to get the tools they need for learning?  I don't see harm in copying a chapter from a book for students to use in the classroom, so I guess my dilemma will be how I will handle my personal feelings about fair use and copyright against the legalities of fair use and copyright. 

I certainly hope this all of the legalities/rights get easier for me to grasp as we go along.  I know I have loads to learn but I think I would feel a little more comfortable if I actually agreed with (aka fully understood) some of the legalities/rights that are being presented.

Week Two - 9/6/10 - 9/12/10

Copyright. What an intimidating word it has turned out to be!  When I reflect upon what I learned this week, I think what frightens me about copyright is not flagrant misuse but the instances of copyright infringement that may occur but may not have been intentional.  I realize that lack of knowledge of the law does not make a person exempt from abiding by it,  but sometime things happen where you didn't realize you were doing anything wrong by making a copy of something for the classroom or to be used for a school project.

Prior to reading Simpson's text, I believed that to some extent, schools had a different set of copyright guidelines than the rest of the world.  Reason being - because they are educating our children.  Perhaps this is a weak reason but I believe that if anyone should have some flexibility in copyright, it should be educators.  I had no idea that schools had to follow the same rules of copyright that everyone else has to follow and honestly, I find it unfortunate that they must do so.

I do not mean to imply that all educators should be able to go crazy and copy chapter upon chapter of texts or go out and draw pictures of copy written characters such as Mickey Mouse, but if they are teaching a unit, say on Harry Potter, they should have access to and be able to share all things Harry Potter.  I know a publisher would cringe reading this comment because at the end of the day, one of the largest factors behind copyright is money but in my perfect world, schools would have access to any and all materials and be able to use them as much (or as little) as needed, regardless of copyright, to teach our children and money wouldn't be a factor.  I can dream, can't I?

P.S. Incidentally, the copyright image above is in the public domain, but just to be fair to the originating website, I found it here: http://www.clker.com/.