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Do a WorldCat search on keywords "library" and "privacy" and one of the first books, if not the first book, to come up on the list is Mary Minow and Tomas A. Lipinski’s excellent work, The Library's Legal Answer Book. This book places at the top of WorldCat searches on libraries and privacy (or libraries and legal issues) for good reason: it deals with the widest variety of legal issues that affect libraries today in a very readable manner.
The complexity of current state and federal laws affecting libraries proves daunting to many librarians. Yet, potentially, they can be brought to court by irate parents or members of the community. Minow and Lipinski's work brings together the core of most, if not all, the information that a librarian needs, including how to decipher the legal ramifications of copyright, privacy, filtering, digital rights, and other topics. The book also clarifies the complexities surrounding digital rights management.
The Minow/Lipinski work covers such theoretical issues as the library as "public soapbox," as well as practical information on professional liability and the laws related to library employment. The Library’s Legal Answer Book is designed to help libraries operate both within the parameters of the law and the ethics of the profession. One way in which the authors break down complex legal issues is to show how particular cases have impacted certain aspects of library-related law so librarians can understand where the law stands on these issues now, and, also know what rights they have if brought to court. This book shows librarians how to balance their professional obligations with current state and federal laws related to information privacy and copyright. For instance, the chapter about library records and privacy specifically outlines why the federal government is authorized under the PATRIOT Act to obtain library records. It also points out the fact that our automated library circulation systems generally delete circulation transactions that are no longer active and explains how to eliminate the cache or other "electronic trails" of patrons’ use on computers.
Although one could read this work from cover to cover, its primary strength, outside of the clarity of the writing on complex legal issues, lies in its organization, enabling even the most unfamiliar reader to easily find their topic in question. The table of contents divides the book into nine major sections. Once on the first page for that section, issues are divided into logical sub-sections. Within each sub-section is a list of questions that could possibly fall under that sub-section of that topic. The following example of a typical first page of a chapter illustrates this organization.
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Chapter 1: Libraries and Copyright
Determining If a Work is Copyrighted
Q1. As a general rule, are library-created newsletters, bibliographies, web pages, and the like protected by copyright?
Q2. When is a library publication not copyrighted because it is a "work of the United States Government.”?
Q3. Does that mean that my library, which is not a federal library, can freely copy a bibliography published by a federal library?
Q4. If a federal librarian creates a work outside the scope of his or her employment, does the librarian hold a copyright to that work?
Q5. Are works published by state and local libraries copyrighted?
Q6. Would a state or local librarian's work be copyrightable?
Q7. Are all types of works created in a library copyrightable?
Copyright Holder Rights
Q8. What rights do copyright holders have?
Q9. When can libraries make copies of works?
Copyright Holder's Exclusive Rights
Reproduction
Derivative Works (Adaptation of Works)
Distribution
Performance and Display
Location Clause
Action (Transmission or Communication) Clause
Performance of Sound Recordings by Digital Transmission
Exceptions for Libraries and Users
Library "Fair Use" of Copyrighted Materials: Section 107
Q10. What does "fair use" mean?
Etc.
Library Examples
Q18 Is it okay to copy pictures to make a thumbnail-image index to a collection?
Q19. Can a library show the chocolate factory assembly-line scene from I Love Lucy in a training workshop?
Q20. Can a library copy another library's bibliographies or pathfinders?
Q21. Can a library copy text, graphics, etc. from other web pages?
Etc.
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The chapter on "Libraries and Copyright" deals not only with copyright but also includes sections on the PATRIOT Act. Another chapter treats questions concerning data mining from Internet Service Providers and logs. The organization ensures that, even if you are uncertain where your issue might fall, a quick skimming of a few sections will rapidly bring you to the most relevant section.
Each chapter not only contains reference to specific cases involving that particular topic, but explains why and how that particular judicial ruling was relevant or impacted libraries. For example, in the section on patron privacy, after outlining the law and what the law means to libraries, the authors provide a salient example of the complexities of this issue by discussing how Michigan's 1996 amendment to the records release law did not require a library "to adopt a policy of disclosing the library record of a young patron even if a parent or guardian consents to such disclosure" (p. 186). Whether or not various laws and court cases apply to one's own library would of course vary from state to state. However, Minow and Lipinski's clear description, using the amendments of laws and their impact libraries in one or two states, guides the reader to an understanding of the questions she would need to examine in her own state. Other times the authors include "what if" generic scenarios to help illustrate points. The addition of these elements, pointing to specific state cases and providing more generic scenarios, contributes to the readability of the book and the ability to get one's mind around what the law is and how it would look when applied to a particular library situation.
Minow and Lipinski are careful throughout to reference users back to their individual state laws if they are addressing an issue that varies from state to state, such as library confidentiality statutes. Of particular note is the table the authors have included that breaks down by state what state library confidentiality statutes protect and where "significant exceptions" to these protections would reside. The answers to complex legal issues are found quickly and easily in this well-organized, well-written book.
While this book will not turn school librarians into lawyers, it so easily provides the core of information we need to know on vital issues of our profession in such an organized manner that you may be tempted to go to law school after referencing this work! This book is a "must buy" for any librarian who wants to have this knowledge at his or her fingertips.
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