Insider Info

Dan Donnelly has worked as a librarian for over 30 years. He now directs copyright awareness at the University of Minnesota. As a manager for library media services, he works with technical applications for teachers who are using web-based technology to build online courses.

"Teachers look at technology for a lot of possibilities," he says. They use this technology in ways that allow them to integrate material that is copyrighted in other places.

Librarians, he says, have a long history of being responsible for copyright information. But they haven't always been given titles to reflect that role.

"We have, historically, been involved with copyright and copyright issues as they apply to libraries and teaching services," he says.

Donnelly usually gives at least three workshops throughout the academic year as part of his work as a copyright coordinator.

The one-hour training sessions focus on how to digitize video or still graphics. He also instructs course builders on how to put those images on the web without a copyright infringement.

"The big thing is that people are integrating media," Donnelly says. "What I do is teach people the limits, how to avoid the limits. I try to teach them how to make those judgments."

He also has to keep the faculty informed of copyright policy as it applies to them. He uses his knowledge of copyright laws to enable the professors to design courses for use on the web.

"I have to keep things fresh," he says. "So I have to keep revising things. I have to keep on top of copyright law and copyright issues in education."

He says he has located a comfortable niche in the library system. He adds that most copyright work is found in places of higher learning.

"I think the need for the kind of thing I do is in academic or educational settings," Donnelly says. "Every academic institution needs someone who is an expert on copyright law."

Mastering copyright law would require years of study. But it's not just lawyers who do this. Many duties once performed by copyright lawyers have fallen into the hands of paralegals.

Shari Townsend is a permissions coordinator. She was trained as a paralegal. She finds that the work she does as a copyright coordinator can be quite exciting.

Her company offers databases from over 23,000 news, legal, business and government sources around the world in both print and other media. It includes a video archive.

Such a wide range of applications makes this database a favorite of sleuths, both in reality and in play. Detectives are often seen using the service in the movies.

But in order to be allowed to use images of the service in a movie, the movie's producers first have to go to Townsend's company and ask for copyright permission.

In the past, it has been Townsend's job to ensure that producers present the company in a certain way before she will give them permission. That includes making sure that the service is not shown doing things it cannot do.

Not all of her work is so dramatic, however. More often, she spends her days locating cases for lawyers or law students.

And sometimes she is required to do a little investigating of her own. She searches the web for articles that are being used without correct copyright permission. Mainly, she says, her company wants to make sure that people are not downloading the company's database to make their own.

When they find that any articles or information from their web site are posted elsewhere, without their permission, Townsend contacts the person or group by phone or e-mail.

"Most of the time, I try to do it in a really friendly tone because some people just don't know they're not allowed to do that," she says.

"I like that aspect of my job. Most of the time, people are friendly. It's a nice outlet where I get to deal with people outside the company."

Cindy Goldrick is also in the business of ensuring that artists and creators are not being denied their fair share of profit.

She works for a nonprofit organization that represents over 4,000 creators, including writers, artists and photographers.

People contact the organization when they are interested in getting reproduction rights for any of these media. Sometimes tracking down the actual owner of a piece of work, Goldrick says, can be difficult.

"The person who does this kind of thing has to be tenacious," Goldrick says.

She says that they need a background in publishing and should be familiar with research principles -- how to find information in books and in electronic databases.

Usually, those kinds of skills are acquired through a university degree. Goldrick says the most common disciplines to come from are English and history.