Copyright Education for Graduate Students: A Multi-Stage Approach

Abstract

INTRODUCTION This article illustrates how academic librarians can structure a copyright education program for graduate students according to models of graduate student persistence. Adapting copyright education to stages of graduate persistence can help academic librarians find ways to strategically allocate resources while best educating students. DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM The article examines how students at the transition, development, and research stages of their education are served by differing types of copyright education such as tutorials, workshops, and consultations. At the large research library where the authors implemented this model, the multi-staged structure of the program allowed librarians to educate students about a broad array of copyright topics throughout their graduate programs instead of addressing issues solely related to dissertations and theses at the end of their studies. Implementing this model of copyright education for graduate students has implications for program scale, instruction across disciplines, and the reduction of graduate student anxiety. NEXT STEPS This program is subject to iterative improvements, and in the future the authors would like to expand early-stage graduate programming and investigate graduate student perceptions of copyright education.