Copyright Skills as Risk Management Tools: The Librarian’s Role in the Age of A.I.

Rescheduled to: Wednesday, June 17 and Wednesday, June 24, 2026, 10:00 am – 12:30 pm Central Time

Copyright in the digital age is complex and confusing–like a gray murky fog, with potholes and quicksand ready to trap both copyright content consumers and copyright content creators. Myths and misunderstandings were rampant. Content theft became easier and more common.

In November 2022, ChatGPT/A.I burst on the scene as a publicly-accessible form of A.I.  The response was immediate: from This is the end of the world…TO…This is the best thing since sliced bread.

After 2+ years, we know It depends.  

ChatGPT was like magic–answers in a matter of seconds. The public was captivated: webinars, books, courses, articles flooded the market. Everyone, it seemed, was obsessed with learning to create the “perfect prompts.” However, I noticed that little if anything was mentioned about the copyright implications.

We know that ChatGPT and similar A.I. platforms were trained on content scraped from the internet.  Supposedly all that content was, in my personal interpretation, gathered into one giant stew and then put through a blender, so that the original content could not be generated/replicated in the search results.

Learning Outcomes 

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

• apply basic copyright concepts to answer myths commonly heard in their organizations–including myths/misunderstandings about the use of A.I.  
• identify potentially risky practices in their organizations and draft at least 5 (five) relevant “best practices for copyright risk management in the Age of A.I.”
• develop a possible strategy for raising awareness among administrators, staff, students, patrons of the potential legal, financial and ethical risks of copyright infringement when using ChatGPT/AI and  the crucial role that the library can play in mitigating those risks.  
• begin to plan an outreach/educational program for the various constituencies within their organizations to enable compliance with copyright law and responsible use of A.I.
• become familiar with resources for staying informed about A.I and copyright issues. 

Instructor

Barbara Ingrassia has a passion for raising awareness of the role of copyright in our daily lives and how we can use copyright as a tool to achieve our dreams and goals. We are all Consumers and Creators of copyright-protected works and understanding some copyright basics can help us achieve our goals and avoid unpleasant “surprises.”  Ingrassia enjoys bringing some fun to a serious and important topic. 

With content theft running rampant, she has added a focus on website content protection. 

ChatGPT burst on the scene in November 2022, bringing serious additional copyright considerations. 

Since 2008, she has studied the “murkiness” of copyright law with the Center for Intellectual Property at the University of Maryland, the Special Libraries Association, Duke University, Copyrightlaws.com, and the Berkman Center at Harvard Law School.  

As President of Manage Copyright, she enjoys facilitating workshops/webinars for various professional organizations and consults with individual content creators–both virtually and face-to-face. 

In 2014, she developed Copyright Skills as Risk Management Tools: The Librarian’s Role, a 4-credit CEU for the Medical Library Association. She facilitated the workshop for ARISL, NAHSL, Midwest, SCC, LIHSL, and used it as a basis for webinars for ATD, Training Magazine Network,  AFWA, NSA/NCA, OIVAC, and other professional groups outside of  MLA. 

Since 2023, she has spoken about A.I. and copyright issues for several summits and professional groups.

Her motto:  Manage Copyright. Don’t Let It Manage You! 

MLA CE: 5