Here is a useful and readable volume about important and controversial legal issues of concern to all library managers and information professionals. Learn the implications of the complex, relevant laws on collective bargaining, privacy of circulation files, employee record keeping, personnel management, censorship, copyright, and much more.

The Law of Libraries and Archives explains legal concepts in plain English so that librarians and archivists will be able to understand the principles that affect them on a daily basis. Issues in the book include contracts, copyright and patent law, fair use, the TEACH Act, trademark law, licensing of databases, information malpractice and professionalism, privacy issues and the PATRIOT Act, employment law, and the basics of starting a non-profit organization.

How can libraries, museums, and archives update their policies to balance legal requirements with the needs of their users? Although such issues have always permeated the information environment, traditional responses are no longer enough. This in-depth treatment provides concrete background and guidelines for every library, museum, or archive, no matter what the size or mission. Issues related to the components of the collection, gifts, and donations (real property and tax implications), rights to privacy, users' rights of access, copyright and information control, and responsibility for safety in public spaces are covered in depth. A complete chapter is devoted to a discussion of the proper structure and elements of library, museum, or archives policy content-a superb blueprint for effective policy drafting at all levels of the institutional lifecycle. Finally, a resource list of ethical and legal materials in print and on the Web points the way to a wealth of highly specific and useful information. Timely and essential.

Providing a substantive approach to the issue, Management of Library and Archival Security: From the Outside Looking In gives librarians and collection directors practical and helpful suggestions for developing policies and procedures to minimize theft. In addition, this text prepares you to deal with the aftermath of a robbery or natural disaster that destroys priceless materials. Through expert opinions and advice, Management of Library and Archival Security will teach you how to protect and secure invaluable collections and the finances invested in them. In addition, Management of Library and Archival Security offers numerous suggestions for preserving collections from environmental hazards and natural disasters. Contributors discuss several possible scenarios leading to the loss or destruction of library or archive materials and offer numerous measures of protection, including: implementing timely inventory standards, using approved marketing practices, keeping good user records, and having knowledge of insurance coverage making a recovery plan that deals with the impact of a theft and how it may affect staff and the actual workings of a department or archive knowing who to contact after a theft, such as local enforcement agencies, federal officials, and listing the theft on the Library Security Officer Listserv (LSO) to alert local and national libraries and collectors to the crime incorporating internal audits in a university setting to prevent crime and ensure accounting and administration controls are effective and efficient instituting a preservation program for collections, which includes temperature control of the indoor environment, studying the building design for weaknesses or potential dangers, reformatting deteriorating materials, and limiting the handling of materials making plans for the aftermath of a disaster, such as creating methods for risk assessment, developing collection priorities, and making rehabilitation policies for materials The chapters in Management of Library and Archival Security offer unique insight from a former F.B.I. agent with extensive experience in library thefts, a preservation specialist, and an archivist with extensive conservation experience in order to provide you with all of the information you need to safeguard library and archive collections against theft, environmental conditions, natural disasters, and resultant financial loss.

Today, it has been said, the world is "flat," as online media allow information to move easily from point to point across the earth. International legal differences, however, are increasingly affecting the ease with which data and ideas can be shared across nations. Copyright law, for example, affects the international flow of materials by stipulating who has the right to replicate or to share certain kinds of content. Similarly, perspectives on privacy rights can differ from nation to nation and affect how personal information is shared globally. Moreover, national laws can affect the exchange of ideas by stipulating the language in which information must be presented in different geopolitical regions. Today's technical communicators need to understand how legal factors can affect communication practices if they wish to work effectively in global contexts. This collection provides an overview of different legal aspects that technical communicators might encounter when creating materials or sharing information in international environments. Through addressing topics ranging from privacy rights and information exchange to the legalities of business practices in virtual worlds and perspectives on authorship and ownership, the contributors to this volume examine a variety of communication-based legal issues that can cause problems or miscommunication in international interactions. Reviewing such topics from different perspectives, the authors collectively provide ideas that could serve as a foundation for creating best practices on or for engaging in future research in the area of legal issues in international settings.

This publication, prepared under the aegis of the WIPO Creative Heritage Project by two external consultants, Ms. Molly Torsen and Dr. Jane Anderson, offers legal information and compiles practical experiences on the management of intellectual property for cultural institutions whose collections comprise traditional cultural expressions. It seeks to respond directly to the needs of cultural institutions and indigenous and traditional communities dealing with the preservation, safeguarding and protection of cultural heritage.

Tangible and intangible forms of indigenous knowledges and cultural expressions are often found in libraries, archives or museums. Often the "legal" copyright is not held by the indigenous people’s group from which the knowledge or cultural expression originates. Indigenous peoples regard unauthorized use of their cultural expressions as theft and believe that the true expression of that knowledge can only be sustained, transformed, and remain dynamic in its proper cultural context. Readers will begin to understand how to respect and preserve these ways of knowing while appreciating the cultural memory institutions’ attempts to transfer the knowledges to the next generation.

Attorney and archivist Menzi Behrnd-Klodt details legal issues from acquisition to ownership, access, administration, and the effects of copyright and intellectual property law on archivists and archives. --from publisher description.

The Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences, comprising of seven volumes, now in its fourth edition, compiles the contributions of major researchers and practitioners and explores the cultural institutions of more than 30 countries. This major reference presents over 550 entries extensively reviewed for accuracy in seven print volumes or online. The new fourth edition, which includes 55 new entires and 60 revised entries, continues to reflect the growing convergence among the disciplines that influence information and the cultural record, with coverage of the latest topics as well as classic articles of historical and theoretical importance.

This revised and updated second edition addresses the area where law and information security concerns intersect. Information systems security and legal compliance are now required to protect critical governmental and corporate infrastructure, intellectual property created by individuals and organizations alike, and information that individuals believe should be protected from unreasonable intrusion. Organizations must build numerous information security and privacy responses into their daily operations to protect the business itself, fully meet legal requirements, and to meet the expectations of employees and customers. --