Librarians are confronted everyday by copyright issues and now there is help! VALL members Jim Heller, Paul Hellyer and Ben Keele from William & Mary have recently published a book, The Librarian's Copyright Companion, 2nd ed. It provides a practical analysis of copyright law from the librarian's perspective.
Jim, who is director of the law library at William & Mary, wrote the first edition in 2004. By 2010, parts of the first edition were out of date, and Jim asked reference librarians Paul and Ben to join him in creating the second edition. That began a two-year effort to research new trends in copyright law and extensively revise the text.
In addition to updating the text, the authors added several new topics, including open licenses, libraries acting as publishers, and applying copyright to new media forms. The authors wrapped up their work in mid-2012 and their publisher, William S. Hein & Co., released the second edition in November.
Congratulations to Jim, Paul and Ben for this much needed book!
