We have received many questions recently about virtual and online storytimes. As we cannot provide legal advice, we wanted to curate a few resources that may be helpful during this time. If you need legal advice, we would highly recommend that you reach out to your library, city or county’s legal counsel if available.

Virtual Storytime Information

• School Library Journal’s COVID-19 Publisher Information Directory: https://www.slj.com/?detailStory=publisher-information-directory-copyright-storytime-social-media-permissions-covid-19 This resource outlines permissions granted during COVID-19 by publisher.

• Online Story Time & Coronavirus: https://programminglibrarian.org/articles/online-story-time-coronavirus-it%E2%80%99s-fair-use-folks This post from the Programming Librarian was posted by ALA’s Public Program’s Office. This should not be taken as legal advice, but may offer one perspective.

• Youth and Teen Programs and Services https://www.tsl.texas.gov/ldn/youthservices The Texas State Library’s Youth Services page provides COVID-19 Youth Services Resources.

Copyright and Creative Commons Information

• Introduction to Copyright and Fair Use online course https://onlinetraining.tsl.texas.gov/course/view.php?id=398 This webinar was presented by Colleen Lyon, Head of Scholarly Communications at UT Austin, and Emilie Algenio, Copyright & Fair Use Librarian at Texas A&M University. 

• Measuring Fair Use: The Four Factors https://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use/four-factors/ This provides a solid overview of fair use from the Stanford Copyright and Fair Use Center.

• U.S. Copyright Office https://copyright.gov/ The website of the U.S. Copyright Office provides a a plethora of resources on copyright law.

• Creative Commons: Helping Patrons and Students Find and License Online Content https://onlinetraining.tsl.texas.gov/course/view.php?id=354 In this archived webinar, the Texas State Library’s Kyla Hunt and Liz Philippi explore ways to locate Creative Commons licensed materials and to promote the usage of Creative Commons in your library.

We hope you find this information useful; for further reading, you may also want to view our previous blog post, Copyright and Fair Use Resources.   

Have a safe and healthy summer!