Bridging the copyright and licensing knowledge gap

Abstract

(BA Melb, GDIM RMIT, MInfoStud CSturt) is currently Electronic Resources Coordinator at Deakin University Library. She has previously worked in the roles of Library Professional Cadet and Electronic Resources Librarian at Deakin University and also in roles at Darebin Libraries. Alice's professional interests include electronic resource acquisitions, collection assessment and evaluation, and trends in licensing and scholarly communication.Chrissy Freestone (BA (Otago), Grad Dip Library and Info Studies (UTAS)) is currently a Liaison Librarian with the Faculty of Health at Deakin University Library. She has worked for many years in a variety of roles in academic libraries in New Zealand, Tasmania and Victoria. As a liaison librarian she has worked in both business and health disciplines. Chrissy's professional interests include innovations in the delivery of digital literacy, and trends and developments in health librarianship. ORCID iD http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7260-9825 Deakin University Library staff are active participants in our professional community where we build and share expertise; interpret, analyse and communicate trends and developments that may have significant impacts for the Library and Deakin University, and that can assist in building a bold and exciting future for Deakin.We welcome your feedback on any of the papers in discourse and your discussion on the topics that they raise. Series Bridging the Copyright and Licensing Knowledge GapAlice Fahey, Chrissy Freestone, Fiona Russell and Caitlin Savage AbstractObjectives: The purpose of this project was to examine the copyright and licensing knowledge gap of academic staff to identify their current understanding of, and attitudes towards, copyright, licensing and the open access movement in relation to the content they use, create, and share in their teaching and research practice. The motivation behind this study was to gather information to assist the Library in creating and providing effective information resources and training for academic staff. Methods: An anonymous online survey was distributed to Faculty of Health academic staff at Deakin University. Seventy individuals in the Faculty of Health completed the survey. Results:The results suggested that most of the academics have used content created by others in their teaching materials, but they are not confident about complying with copyright or licensing conditions whilst doing so. Most had not posted any of their own content online, but would generally be willing for it to be used by others, with attribution. Around half had never posted their published articles in an institutional or discipline repository, but again, would be willing for them to be used for educational purposes. Most academics have never shared their research data online, and some were very unwilling to do so -despite current pushes to broaden access to research data sets. Finally, most had never applied a Creative Commons licence to a piece of work, and over half were unaware of what rights they had retained under p...