Copyright law is one of the greatest obstacles to mass digitization; the Google Books and HathiTrust cases vividly illustrate the problem. This session will explore those legal challenges, and will discuss new approaches to enabling mass digitization and access. The session will highlight how fair use and best practices can be used to address orphan works (i.e., works whose copyright owners cannot be located), and will explain strategies for how law libraries can more realistically balance the risk of copyright infringement against the risk of failing to provide users with effective digital access to the incredible wealth of materials in their collections. For more information about the research work of these scholars, see www.law.berkeley.edu/bclt.htm.

Takeaway 1: Participants will be able to identify the core copyright obstacles facing law libraries that seek to digitize and make available their collections to users.

Takeaway 2: Participants will be able to locate and employ resources, such as best practices, to help make decisions about digitization and use of copyrighted works in their collections.

Takeaway 3: Participants will be able to more accurately assess and balance the risks of using copyrighted works as weighed against the mission risk of failing to provide users with digital access to the library's historical holdings, a critical part of the collection that retains untapped value in today's "digital-plus" world.

Who should attend: All law librarians who access historical information in digital format and need to understand the major challenges to making historical material available in such formats; all law librarians who want to stay apprised of the timely, cutting-edge developments in this field

Track(s): Library Management, Information Technology, Reference, Research and Client Services, Collection Development and Cataloging