Copyright Literacy: Do College Librarians Incorporate it in User Education?

The purpose of this paper is to study the initiatives taken by college librarians in the state of Maharashtra for user education regarding copyright law. A questionnaire tool was used to survey the college librarians in Maharashtra. An online questionnaire was circulated through librarians’ discussion forum “ILOSC” and the data from the responses received were analyzed by percentage method and presented in the form of charts and tables. Though majority of the college librarians agreed that user education on copyright law is the librarians’ responsibility, they were not proactive in this respect. The study helped in identifying lacunae in the librarians’ approaches to copyright education. The value of this paper lies in the ideas it has provided for increasing copyright awareness and improving copyright compliance by all concerned. It is also valuable as it proves the necessity for continuous education of librarians on copyright in addition to the need for copyright education of users.