Librarians' Perception on the Service of Cinematographic Works in Libraries and Copyright

Abstract

Cinematographic works are crucial for libraries as a part of their collections. Especially public libraries provide a variety of programs associated with cinematographic works. Copyright law considers the use of cinematographic works as a type of public performance and restricted it under certain conditions such as the released date. In addition, copyright agency challenged libraries to pay fees for cinematographic works released within 6 months. At this point, this study investigated the perception of librarians on cinematographic works and copyright issues. 292 librarians in public and academic libraries answers the questionnaire form May 8th to June 7th, 2013. In result, librarians consider services of video works as a important part of library services. They are also conscious of the exception conditions for copyright law for cinematographic works provided by library services. Furthermore, even though librarians are aware of copyright issues, they show the negative response to copyright fees for playing cinematographic works in the libraries.