Knowledge of and Response to Copyright Law, School Copyright Policy, and Copyright-related Issues: Survey of Secondary School Principals and Librarians

The problem of this study was that, with the impact of new media and delivery systems, principals and librarians must respond to copyright issues in order to remain informed about the copyright law and the legal use of media. The purpose of this study was to gather and evaluate educator response to issues related to copyright. The study was conducted with a sample of regionally accredited secondary schools in the following states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. A total of 1008 questionnaires were mailed to the principal and the librarian of the 504 schools of the sample. The data of the study were provided by 546 (54%) questionnaires. The first twenty items of the questionnaire provided the variables used to organize, test, and report the data. The second part of the questionnaire was a multiple choice copyright test used to determine the copyright knowledge of the respondent. The t test was used to test the mean copyright test scores of educator groups for significant differences. Groups were defined by professional position, years of experience, involvement or no involvement in job related litigation, and law class or workshop participation since the enactment of the 1976 Copyright Law. Chi-square was used to test the frequencies of reported exposure to the 1976 Copyright Law between professional groups, experience groups, and law class or workshop participation groups. Seven null hypotheses were tested at the.05 level. The mean copyright test score of the librarian group was significantly higher than the mean score of the principal group. The mean test score of the law class participation group was significantly higher than the mean test score of the non-participation group. Responses of exposure to the 1976 Copyright Law provided a five category hierarchy. There was no significant difference in the exposure reported by the principal and librarian groups. The difference of exposure reported by the law class participation group and the non-participation group was significant. Fourteen research questions, which comprised the periphery of the study, were reported. The findings of the study provided the basis for the conclusions and recommendations