Digital Access

Students in a school are reading a simultaneous use eBook. The students with IEPs[1] have access to a screen reader but this feature is very robotic and doesn't meet their needs. The school librarian and the School Library System searched for an audio version of this book but could not find one for purchase.

The school may be covered by Fair Use but for this scenario, it doesn't need to be in order to make the recording proposed by the member.

Why?

If a signed license says that authorized users for remote access include "current students, faculty, and staff only" or "active faculty, students, and staff only" or even "bona fide current faculty, staff, and students only" can we conclude that terminated faculty would not be legally allowed to have remote access after their termination?

To give readers a bit of context about my answer to this: between 2006 and 2017, I was an in-house attorney at a university.  During that time, I hobnobbed with a lot of other higher education attorneys; first, because the hobnobbing helped keep us current in our practice, and second, because attorneys--like murders of crows or parliaments of rooks--are social creatures, who just need 

I received a request from a former student of [a local high school] in which her name appears on a yearbook page citing student activities. As the page is part of a whole PDF of the entire yearbook, "removing her name" would require taking down the entire yearbook.

At "Ask the Lawyer," we have tackled "yearbook questions" before: in 2018[1] we addressed patron requests to copy physical yearbooks in a library's collection, and in January of 2020[2] we addressed using scanned yearbook images to illustrate a commemorative calendar. 

In the spring, it was clear academic libraries providing digital resources were in a state of emergency and fair use restrictions were loosened.

This fall, we are asked to plan for face to face learning, but we may be asked to turn on a dime and provide digital resources overnight if a student or faculty member in a course is unable to attend class.

Before I answer this question, I do have to emphasize: as I wrote here, fair use was not modified during the height of the initial pandemic closures.  Further, there is no case law or regulatory guidance indicating things will be any different if we have to return to the level of lockdown experienced this Spring. 

I have an instructor who asked if it would be violating copyright infringement if she shares articles from her personal Continuing Education Units (CEU) account subscription with her students as class reading assignments.

NOTE: This question arose during the scramble for online resources during the nation’s response to COVID-19.  Click here for a full array of COVID-19-related questions about library operations and copyright matters impacted by pandemic response.

With the NYS Shield Act taking effect in March 2020 what changes or precautions should libraries be thinking about to comply with the law and minimize the risk of data breaches?

There are many technical aspects to this question, and this answer will explore many of them.  But first, I invite each reader to sit back, close their eyes, and envision the types of information their library takes in, maintains, or manages digitally.

I have been reading the legal arguments undergirding the Controlled Digital Lending initiative (controlleddigitallending.org).

This is a great and important question, and it rests on an critical issue. 

With that in mind, before you delve into this answer, I encourage readers of “Ask the Lawyer!” to check out the CDL “Statement” on www.controlleddigitallending.org/statement.

[Small break.]

Recently, our library has been given a collection of photographs that were previously on display in a local business location. These are photos of the customers of the business, many are children. These photos span several decades and are important to many. 

To answer the member’s questions, we must start with the fundamentals.

When accepting a donation of culturally significant photos, an archive should have a donor agreement or other documentation that addresses the following things:

Does the donor solely own the physical photos?

Is physical ownership being given to your institution?

A member asked about a request for the library to provide copies of photos from yearbooks for a class reunion.

One of the reasons I enjoy doing “Ask the Lawyer,” is the diversity of questions, and the often esoteric subjects I get to research as a result.  This question is a prime example.

Question 1

Two questions about a creative use of resources!  Truly a joy to behold.  Unfortunately, this is one of those questions where I have to be a killjoy.