Managing Digital Rights: A Practitioner's Guide

Citation

Fourie, I. (2005), "Managing Digital Rights: A Practitioner's Guide", The Electronic Library, Vol. 23 No. 4, pp. 506-507. https://doi.org/10.1108/02640470510611625

In Managing Digital Rights… well‐known author, Paul Pedley, manages to get a great team of experts to explore various facets of digital rights management within the context of libraries and information services. Contributions include Sandy Norman's international perspective, the gaining of copyright clearance by Helen Pickering, the right to teach by Linda Purdy and the corporate right holder's perspective by Ian Watson. Pedley sets the scene for these chapters in the first chapter, where he considers what makes digital information different, why digital rights should be protected, as well as some of the legal implications affecting digital information.

Managing Digital Rights… is a brief, well‐written and to‐the‐point text that is aimed at practitioners working in libraries and information services, as well as archives and museums, and who want to know whether they can digitize their collections. It also explores how they can obtain the necessary rights for such collections. The book is especially aimed at practical solutions, but should not be seen as a source of legal advice. Pedley makes it very clear that the authors are not qualified to give legal advice, and that their intention is merely to make readers aware of the digital rights management issues affecting information professionals.

All chapters are well researched and include extensive lists of references that could direct the reader to further sources of information. Managing Digital Rights… is concluded with a rather basic index, which unfortunately does not contribute much to the quality of the book.

Managing Digital Rights… is highly recommended for its intended target group. I think that is might also be useful to bring the text to the intention of students studying digital rights management.