An update to Benson’s best-selling copyright guide

CHICAGO — When faculty, students, and colleagues come to you with legal questions and you suddenly find yourself in the thick of a copyright conundrum, you don’t need pages of historical background information and long-winded legal explanations — you need answers, fast. Previously included in Choice's Top 75 Titles and Resources for Community College Libraries, the new second edition of Sara R. Benson’s “Compact Copyright: Quick Answers to Common Questions” gives you just that. Published by ALA Editions, it succinctly addresses common head-scratchers and scenarios in a way that you will lead you to accurate answers quickly. Ideal for on-the-fly reference, staff training, and LIS instruction, Benson’s guide provides excerpts from the law itself alongside tools and suggested additional resources for digging deeper. Newly revised to reflect copyright’s ever-changing landscape, Compact Copyright:

• skillfully explains legal principles in plain language for more than 50 of the most common real-life scenarios library workers face;
• includes new chapters on the impact of developments such as AI, separability, and copyright and data;
• provides a primer on contracts and licensing basics, including Creative Commons licensing;
• explores key topics like the First Sale doctrine, Fair Use, public domain, making copies for preservation, the TEACH Act, interlibrary loan, sovereign immunity, and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCMA);
• offers pointers on access to copyrighted material for patrons with disabilities and other concepts related to accessibility;
• discusses select international copyright library issues; and
• includes a Fair Use checklist, copyright and film screening best practices, and additional recommended reading and materials.

Benson is the copyright librarian and an associate professor at the University of Illinois Library and an affiliate professor of the School of Information Science, European Union Center, and the Center for Global Studies at the University of Illinois. She also serves as the head of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) Delegation to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and is a member of the Copyright Public Modernization Committee for the Library of Congress.

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