The Music Librarian as a Copyright Coach

Abstract

Music librarianship is a complex subfield that requires a good deal of specialized knowledge. The diverse and sometimes unique formats that a music librarian must acquire and describe, as well as the expert language required to address instruction and reference requests in this field, mean that a successful music librarian must develop a particularized body of knowledge to a degree that is often not required, even though sometimes found, in other disciplinespecific library work. Copyright is one such area where the specialized knowledge needed is rather unique for a music librarian, even though all librarians encounter copyright in their daily work. The music librarian who is called upon to “coach copyright” faces a more complicated and shifting set of copyright doctrines and rules than are found in other areas of that body of law. This column tries to outline some of those unique aspects of copyright law that a music librarian as copyright coach will encounter. The idea of librarians as copyright coaches was suggested to me a couple of years ago by an editor at ALA Publishing. The ensuing conversation with my colleague Erin Ellis, who was then Assistant Dean for Research and Learning at the University of Kansas and is now an Associate Dean at Indiana University, resulted in the book Coaching Copyright, published by the ALA in 2019. In that collection of essays, we develop the idea that librarians charged with copyright responsibilities should approach their task very much as coaches approach theirs; the goal is to help others make good decisions and to think strategically about options and potential consequences. After an initial essay that details the contours of copyright coaching, Ellis and Jill Becker of the University of Kansas develop the connections between copyright coaching and the ACRL Framework for Information literacy. The remainder of the essays are case studies that offer ideas and techniques for building knowledge and confidence on copyright issues with faculty and students. The idea of coaching, and the ACRL Framework, provide the threads that connect these contributions into a whole that we hope will be useful to librarians charged with responsibility for a body of law, and a set of practices, that is often counterintuitive and daunting. The metaphor of coaching for those who are asked to field questions and teach both faculty and students about copyright is useful on several levels. By definition, coaches support others who must make decisions in the heat of the game; copyright librarians are in a similar position. By providing tools for decision-making, rather than definitive answers to specific questions, MUSIC REFERENCE SERVICES QUARTERLY 2021, VOL. 24, NOS. 1–2, 3–8 https://doi.org/10.1080/10588167.2020.1822065