Open Access Repositories, Copyright, And Fair Use At ACRL

Winchester, MA  Open access repositories using DSpace or Fedora open source software are growing in numbers of installations worldwide (1,500+), as well as in the volume and diversity of resources that they help to make available. There are success stories about how institutions have grown their educational "footprint" [1] internationally, and among those who have not traditionally had access to high quality digital resources by disseminating collections through institutional repositories. This kind of uptake inspires librarians to find ways to add more content to the open access mainstream. At the recent ACRL Conference [2] in Indianapolis a workshop [3] on copyright and fair use was well-attended and sparked lively conversations between presenters and attendees.

American Library Association President Maureen Sullivan set the stage for this significant topic in a recent letter [4] to The New York Times. 

"There is a necessary and vital balance between the interests of rights holders and the rights of the public, between commerce and learning. Throughout history, we (librarians) have been able to maintain this important balance and have confidence we may do so in the future.