Librarians, En Garde! - Rachel Nash's Librarian I Portfolio

Nash | 7“repurpose or add value to copyrighted work.” 31 In addition, Valenza and Johnson list forms ofcreativity that librarians need to cultivate and encourage in themselves and in their librarypatrons including such skills as making YouTube videos, Tweets, blog posts, and digitalstories. 32 These views of digital creative freedoms show us that librarians have a responsibility tothe public to support their right to build on the creations of others in order to enrich culturethrough new creative works.Though new technologies make the products of research easier to disseminate, currentcopyright laws have greatly decreased the ability of libraries to provide their scholarly patronswith legal access to materials for the purposes of advancing research. In the world of printresources, libraries purchased subscriptions to physical copies of scholarly journals. The rights toread, lend, and resell these physical copies were protected under the first sale doctrine. However,the rights guaranteed to owners of works in the analog environment do not cross over to thedigital one. The first sale doctrine does not apply to digital copies of scholarly journals or bookspurchased by libraries. This is because current copyright law holds that “every time you use acreative work in a digital context, the technology is making a copy.” 33 Digital Copyrightsuggests that one current copyright “trend is the piecemeal repeal of the so-called first saledoctrine, which historically… is the reasons why public libraries… are not illegal.” 34 Litman alsowarns that digital authority controls “could completely annul the first sale doctrine.” 35 As wemove further into the digital age, libraries increasingly rely on digital materials to meet thedemands of their patrons, and without the protection of the first sale doctrine, libraries could31 Ibid.32 Ibid., 31.33 Lessig, Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy, 98.34 Litman, Digital Copyright, 80.35 Ibid., 83.