The cost of textbooks has continued to increase with significant financial effects on students in higher education. Although many faculty express a desire and willingness to adopt and create open textbooks (and OER generally), few actually do. To better understand this gap between attitudes and practices, this phenomenological study builds upon…

This paper explores relationships between knowledge production and academic publication and shows that the current political economy of mainstream academic publishing has resulted from a complex interplay between large academic publishers, academics, and hacker-activists. The process of publishing is a form of 'social production' that takes place…

Who has not heard of the federal copyright law and been confused by the many interpretations of what a correctional educator can and cannot copy and distribute in the classroom? The author reviews the basic copyright law that includes examples and a summary of "fair use" principles applicable to correctional educators. The author also…

Open educational resources (OER) have become increasingly popular in recent times. Here, the aim was to synthesise the lessons learned through the development of OER materials for a university-level course called "environmental modelling". Consequently, the topics of discussion included: (i) how to choose an appropriate creative commons…

The growth of the digital world brings positive and also negative influences in the society, For example, the overwhelmed of uneducated material, provoking news, the contents teaches unhealthy behavior, or hoaxes. Most of the people do not have abilities to recognize quality contents or well written contents. Those conditions are really matter, in…

Librarians often act as default copyright experts at their institutions and thus must have an awareness of copyright law and practices. Nevertheless, there is little in the scholarly literature about how well informed librarians are about copyright law. Through a national survey of professional librarians, this study illustrates librarians'…

Investigates whether and how UK university copyright policies address key copyright ownership issues relating to printed and electronic teaching materials. A content analysis of 81 UK university copyright policies is performed to understand their approach towards copyright ownership of printed and e-learning materials and performances; rights on…

The results of this study illustrate that one-shot training sessions are effective in aiding librarians in academic libraries to engage with fair use. This study used testing both before and after an expert-led three-hour training session on fair use for academic librarians to measure their confidence and comprehension. The results, though limited…

Issues arising in the music industry in response to the availability of digital music files provide an opportunity for exposing undergraduate students to economic analyses rarely covered in the undergraduate economics curriculum. Three of these analyses are covered here: the optimal copyright term, the effect of piracy or illegal file sharing, and…

Beyond providing alternatives to traditional learning resources, there exists a gap in the literature in understanding how openness is impacting teaching and learning in higher education. This paper explores the ways in which educators describe how open education is impacting their pedagogical designs. Using a phenomenological approach with…

Copyright concerns continue to bedevil K-12 librarians, who are often called upon to act as the copyright officers in public schools. This article describes recent copyright developments of concern to these librarians in three areas: a recent court case involving a university library, pending legislation supported by ALA, and a regulatory update.…

Higher education has experienced challenges defining and implementing copyright compliance. Confusion among faculty and staff appears to be common regarding copyright and fair use. The original copyright doctrine was drafted over 200 years ago, which predates practically all technological advances that have and will continue to occur. Change is…

Research faculty journal covers were used to create a gallery in the Science & Technology branch library at the University of Akron. The selection, presentation, and promotion process is shared along with copyright considerations and a review of galleries used for library outreach. The event and display was a great success attracting faculty…

A solid professional performance on the part of academic librarians at present calls for adequate knowledge about copyright law, not only for the development of their own tasks without infringing the law, but also to guide and provide pertinent advice for library users (faculty and students). This paper presents the results of an online survey of…

The 1961 Copyright Office study on renewals, authored by Barbara Ringer, has cast an outsized influence on discussions of the U.S. 1923-1963 public domain. As more concrete data emerge from initiatives such as the large-scale determination process in the Copyright Review Management System (CRMS) project, questions are raised about the reliability…