What do you know about TEACH Act?
When it comes to copyright, academic libraries are a very unique work environment as librarians and library staff must not only ensure that their daily work is in compliance with copyright laws, but also provide resources and services to promote awareness of copyright compliance and to assist students and faculty with copyright-related inquiries.
In the digital era where electronic resources are excessively used and freely transmitted for learning in online environment, the role of academic libraries with regards to preventing students and faculty from copyright infringement is now more important than ever before.
On the front line of copyright matters, librarians and library staff are required to possess a thorough understanding of various copyright policies and regulations. However, Charbonneau and Priehs (2014) reported that even though the librarians were provided copyright training, their awareness of copyright policies varied. Notably, the study presented that a majority of the librarians had no or very limited awareness of the Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization Act, known as the TEACH Act. As I have never learned about this act before, the discussion regarding this act in the article is very interesting and meaningful to me.
The TEACH Act which is an amendment to the Copyright Act of 1976 allows educators to perform and to display copyrighted materials in distance class. To ensure a balance between the needs of distance educators and the rights of copyright holders, the act requires that the academic institutions meet following requirements.
First, the act only applies to accredited nonprofit educational institutions and government entities. Second, the performance or display of copyrighted materials must be part of class session or mediated instructional activity which are directed or supervised by the instructor. Third, the institution must establish copyright policies and provide informational materials that promote copyright awareness and compliance.
For example, the institution must notice students that the course materials may be subject to copyright protection and the use and the transmission of these materials are limited to the students officially enrolled in the course only. In addition, the institution is also required to apply technological measures to restrict access to copyrighted materials and to prevent students from retaining copyrighted works beyond the class session or disseminating them.
Distance learning has become more and more common at St. Cloud State University as many courses and credentials now can be obtained online. From my own experience, copyrighted materials are extensively used and transmitted in online class, but I did not see any notice or information regarding my responsibilities of protecting copyrighted materials used in the course as required by the TEACH Act.
Before reading this article, I did not know that sharing class materials with other students who do not enroll in the course is not allowed under the TEACH Act. As I could not see any information concerning the act in D2L, I have conducted some searches on the university website to check if the school has published the TEACH policy somewhere, but nothing was found.
However, further searching on Google, I found that lots of universities in the U.S., such as University System of Georgia, University of California, University of Texas, Pennsylvania State University have published the TEACH Act together with very comprehensive guidance for students and faculty to stay complied with the policy. Therefore, I think it is important for St. Cloud State University to provide this information and guidance on its website and to notice distance learners as well.
In the article, Charbonneau and Priehs (2014) asserted that to enhance the librarians’ awareness of copyright policies, training is not sufficient. However, the author did not suggest any other alternative methods. Therefore, I am wondering what the better ways are to help librarians improve their awareness and confidence of copyright issues, so that they can better support faculty and students.
Reference:
Charbonneau, D.H. & Priehs, M. (2014). Copyright awareness, partnerships, and training issues in academic libraries. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 40 (3-4), 228-233. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0099133314000354
