Undergraduate students are increasingly expected to navigate the world of posting both original and reused content to social media. But how do students know what they should and shouldn’t share on social media? And how does this change depending on whether the student is using a personal account versus one made for school or for a job? An understanding of the ethics and legality of sharing copyrighted content is essential to the third frame, “Information Has Value,” of the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. Much of student use of copyrighted materials for coursework is covered by Educational Fair Use, but these protections do not cover work done for personal or commercial purposes, and may not cover student work that continues to exist outside of the academic environment.
Library instruction at Loyola University New Orleans has recently included one-shot sessions on copyright and fair use for three different disciplines--music, music industry, and mass communication. This session will include a brief overview of current practice in copyright instruction for information literacy as well as tips, tools, and resources for librarians to successfully teach best practices for finding non-copyrighted materials and sharing copyrighted content via social media. Participants in this presentation will be able to 1) recognize the difference between copyright, fair use, and Creative Commons licenses; 2) develop (with confidence!) instruction sessions on copyright and fair use without formal legal training; and 3) modify social media and copyright instruction to meet the needs of different disciplines.