The two
topics which sparked the most thoughts for me this week were the suggestions
for creating school library websites and the copyright laws for audiovisual material
use in schools. Since the school library website topic was covered in depth on
the discussion board, I have decided to focus on the copyright issue. It is
truly astounding how tight the copyright rules are regarding audiovisual
material use in schools, but really more astounding how loose attitudes are
towards breaking the rules. Simpson’s list of illegal scenarios was impressive,
because I have been a part of most of them—right down to the specific situation
in which a band teacher played Mr. Holland’s Opus for my high school band as we
rode to a band competition! I also was
familiar with the problem after speaking to my mentor last fall during my field
experience. She explained that there had been multiple times when she tried to
persuade teachers (or even the principal or superintendent) that showing movies
in certain situations was breaking the copyright laws. They willfully ignored
her information and said they thought it was ok because they were not going to
charge admission—again, an example straight out of the Simpson chapter.
I
really think the problem comes down to lack of education about the law for
educators. I have now been exposed to copyright laws in three of my classes in
this program, and expect that the issue will come up again and again. How often
is this issue broached in other education courses, however? During our
discussion last week, it was noted that school librarians are the only people
in the school with any copyright or fair use training and so they are expected
to police the school. That sounds a great idea, but what librarian is going to
feel comfortable chastising a fellow teacher, or worse yet, tattling on them to
an administrator? And if the administrator decides to ignore the infringement,
what then can a librarian do—she is not going to tattle to the authorities and
bring a lawsuit down on the school.
I guess
it just all got me thinking about the challenges I will face regarding
copyright laws as part of this career. Not only will I need to be constantly
aware of my own uses of items, but I may be faced with situations that are very
personally uncomfortable because of other teachers’ misuses, whether by
accident or on purpose. What will I be able to do about it? Or, should I do anything about it? What is the responsibilty of the school librarian in situations when she knows copyright is being violated?
As I said in one of my discussion board posts last
week, I suppose I will have to handle it by having all the necessary
information at hand in the library to support teachers when they come looking for
copyright law help. I can hope that I will never face a complicated scenario in
which I feel a teacher is willfully ignoring my information and my suggestions
for how to remain within the law, but based on the Simpson chapter, that seems
unlikely. Does it scare me a little to think about facing some of these
situations? Yes. But, it also makes me realize that this is another reason trained
librarians are so necessary in the school setting, which just makes me want to
learn as much as I can, gather my information around me and prepare to meet
these challenges head on.
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