The Utopian Library

Michael Sauers, Technology Innovation Librarian, Nebraska Library Commission

Program description on the CIL2008 website.

On “Fair Use”:

Throughout history, we’ve taken things from our culture and re-purposed them the create new content:

• Mickey Mouse from Steamboat Willie
• Disney films from classic fairy tales

Creative Commons (CC) licensing is “allowance based.” Instead of restricting use, it allows use…

• I create a work
• I post it on the Web
• I can assign traditional copyright or one of several CC licenses
  • attribution: use it, but with attribution
  • non-commercial: use it, with attribution, for non-profit use
  • no derivitive works: use it as-is, but don’t crop, rotate, mashup, or change in any way
  • remix: use it in any way
  • share-alike: use it, but the content must be re-released under CC license
  • other licenses available…
    • public domain
    • GNU
    • etc.
  • once chosen, a license is irrevocable

See the CC “License Your Work” page to determine which license is appropriate, get the CC deed, legal code, and markup code for license

CC tools

• Firefox plugin
• MS Office add-in

Using CC in libraries

• License the work! share the content!
• Archive and catalog CC licensed works
  • Tips for Conference Bloggers
  • Firefly
  • MaintainIT Project (IT cookbooks)

Questions to consider:

• Does library use of CC-licensed content compete with the original author? Does it take away sales?
• Collection development policies
• Cataloging issues
  • Where is the publication location on a CC-licensed item? Is it the server where the content is stored? The location where the author was when s/he created it?

Filed under: CIL2008, conference notes, libraries