Rights Instruction for Undergraduate Students: Needs, Trends, and Resources

As librarians are increasingly identified as rights experts on campus, it is essential that they understand rights issues and how best to communicate them to a multitude of users. While scholarly literature contains many examples of librarians working with faculty on copyright issues regarding course materials, reserves, eReserves, and intellectual property, there is far less documentation of the need for students, especially undergraduates, to understand their rights as creators and consumers of information. This article reviews relevant literature on librarian copyright skills, the need for copyright instruction, and current case studies and examples of copyright instruction for undergraduates.