Exams, learning about new stuff and copyright

Well exams are in full swing at the University of Reading and the Library is full of students trying to find a quiet spot to revise. Some of them choose to work through the night and the BBC wrote an article comparing the life of the 24 hour Library to former years as we have also recently celebrated the Library's 50 year birthday

Despite not working at 3am, the inter-library loans team here have also been busy bees this term, processing over 400 inter-library loan requests since the start of the Summer term. This week I’ve been doing my best *concentrating face* and trying to understand the changes to UK copyright law. Three of the five statutory instruments (SIs)  amending the copyright exceptions were recently approved by the UK parliament and will

Where the copyright magic happens...

come into force on 1 June 2014 so I want to try and get a grasp on how they might impact on inter-library loan services. Having eschewed the legal documents, I plumped for a read through of the lovely Intellectual Property Office summary of changes for Libraries, Museums and Archives - here it is for any of you who want to do the same.

Lots of interesting stuff, including the tantalising possibility of being able to copy parts of video and audio recordings for non-commercial research and private study, and that the Library privilege declaration may be done electronically (!) Lots more to find out about I’m sure. Over the coming months I’m hoping to get a handle on the changes and how they will impact on the inter-library loan service here, and certain to help with that will be Emily Stannard’s talk on Copyright on Day two of Interlend 14. Hope to see you there :)

Natalie Guest
FIL Membership Secretary