Research Libraries Celebrate Fair Use With New Videos

The Association of Research Libraries recently released a series of new videos discussing the development, use, and impact of fair use best practices. The videos specifically highlight the ways in which the “Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries” has benefited the community, from making historical collections available to researchers online to alleviating the “book famine” of materials available to blind and otherwise print-disabled library patrons.

The experts in the videos, including Center Director Patricia Aufderheide, explain how codes of best practices in fair use have helped transform the media landscape, reducing fear on the part of both independent makers and traditional gatekeepers and empowering new creators and projects. Just ten years ago, both Aufderheide and law professor Peter Jaszi note, fair use was seen as risky and unprofessional. Many important creative projects were buried, abandoned, or never even considered because they would have required creators to use copyrighted material. “Now I’m interviewing younger filmmakers,” recalls Aufderheide, “and they’re like, ‘Well of course I use fair use. Why wouldn’t I?’ It’s a sea change.”

Watch the videos below and visit the ARL website for more. 

American University professors Peter Jaszi and Patricia Aufderheide discuss the development of the “Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries."

American University law professors Peter Jaszi and Brandon Butler discuss the development and roll-out of the “Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries."

In this four-minute video, Greg Cram of the New York Public Library discusses NYPL's application of the principles of fair use.

Watch more here.