Copyright Essentials for Librarians and Educators (review)

Copyright Essentials for Librarians and Educators, Kenneth Crews. Chicago: American Library Association, 2000. 143 p. $45 (ISBN 0-8389-0797-0)

The last time Kenneth Crews (Director of the Copyright Management Center of Indiana University-Purdue University) took on the subject of copyright in the academy, it was with the rather dense and scholarly Copyright, Fair Use, and the Challenge for Universities: Promoting the Progress of Higher Education (Chicago: American Library Association, 1993). Copyright Essentials is not a new edition of that book, but it does update much of the information it contained, addressing issues (such as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the U.S. Copyright Office Report on Distance Education) that have arisen during the intervening years. It also targets its readership a bit better, abandoning the densely-packed format of the scholarly monograph in favor of the large margins, bullet points, and frequent sidebars that will be familiar to those who use the Neal-Schuman "How-to-Do-It" guides. This is a professional handbook, and it feels like one.

Copyright Essentials is well named. Rather than presenting an in-depth treatment of U.S. copyright law and its applications in the library and the classroom, it gives the reader an overview that gracefully walks the line between utility and exhaustiveness. It offers no fewer than forty chapters (and seven appendices) in the space of 143 pages, an approach that works very well; the reader in search of information on the duration of copyright, the fourth test for fair use, or the definition of "tangible medium of expression" will find references to those topics in the table of contents. That said, an index would also have been very helpful, and the lack of one is dis-appointing.

The chapters themselves are well organized. Superscript reference numbers lead not to footnotes or end notes, but to marginal sidebars; these make it easy for the reader to skip in and out of the main text without losing her place. The content of those sidebars may be references to other readings, but are just as likely to be helpful case studies and quick explanatory notes. Each chapter ends with a brief list of further readings or helpful websites.

Crews does not always treat controversial issues with as much balance as he might have. When he describes copyright law as something that "helps entrepreneurs to become multi-millionaires and thousands of teachers, scholars, readers, and librarians to meet their goals each day" (p. 1), it's quite clear which side of the equation represents the good guys. (It would have been more accurate to say that copyright law allows writers, software engineers, and musicians to make a living; most of those who benefit from copyright protection are not tycoons.) Crews' description of the current situation in scholarly publishing, and of the SPARC initiative (p. 32), is clearly partisan. He will find few among his intended readership who disagree with these representations, however.

Overall, Copyright Essentials makes an excellent contribution to the literature on copyright in the academy. Although it will be most useful to librarians and teachers with little copyright experience, even the most seasoned copyright expert would probably benefit from keeping such a well-organized reference tool near at hand. What year was the DMCA signed? What is the legal status of the fair-use guidelines offered by various organizations? What are the exclusive rights of the copyright owner? A quick glance at the table of contents will lead the reader directly to well-written, concise, and helpful answers. That is exactly what a good professional handbook should do.

Rick Anderson
University of Nevada, Reno
<rickand@unr.edu>

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