Copyright violated?

I have a little copyright issue, and need some advice.

I get really fired up about community history, and the role of libraries in preserving our community histories. About two years ago, I worked on a local history project that involved lots of people in my home community, the library, and other community organizations, and came to fruition in an essay and exhibit. The purpose of the project was to gain some publicity for a historic building and community gathering place very near and dear that is in constant financial trouble.

So, I was googling around the Internet yesterday, and I found the following video:



The Parks and Recreation Dept., who I intended the research to ultimately benefit, posted the video on their blog.

That's cool, right? Community history belongs to the community, and people are interacting with it because it means something to them. I shared my research becuase it's not just me and the archive that are wrapped up in the pool. There is a version of the essay on a local wiki, and I would love it if people added to that. Some have. The history of that pool means a lot to me, and to so many others in my home community, so we should all be able to celebrate it and pass it along, right?

Well, maybe not entirely. The images are copyrighted and property of the public library. There is a use fee and use agreement connected with the images. The fees help to keep the archive alive. The agreement helps keep the use of the images legal. Taking screenshots of the images and then citing "courtesy of..." when the library mostly likely did not okay this, isn't really legal. If the library did okay it, please, prove me wrong. If taking screenshots of copyrighted images is legal, please, prove me wrong.

I'm a librarian. I'm uptight about citing sources. I think plagiarism is the 8th deadly sin. The research for this project took a long time and involved a lot of people. I cited my sources like crazy so that other people wouldn't have to spend two years in front of a mircofilm reader reading unindexed newspapers to find information about the building, and to find the photos used in the video.

Am I being too uptight? Too invested? Should I let it go? Should I let the library and historical commission deal with it, since they own the images and I donated my time and research to them? Any free advice?

It's going to be okay!!

This whole job searching thing is getting stressful. I tend to break my collarbone every 5-8 years, and would just like a job with a nice health care package, please.

I nervous googled “librarian, interview questions,” and found these resources for you.

Librarian interview questions

Some more interview questions

How to apply for a library job

After reading through some of these, I began to hope that no one asks me in a professional situation, “what is the best reference question you’ve ever been asked?” Friends, I cannot lie, it was the student that asked, “Which Van Halen album is ‘Panama’ on?” Looking over my glasses I exploded, “1984!!!” The student looked at me with eyes that knew I was wearing a hand-me-down cardigan from my grandmother. I didn’t know until then that I was dying for someone to ask me a question that could exercise the part of my brain where useless facts are stored.

Librarians know lots of facts that they don’t get to use often. Trivia is how librarians show off. It's an over-looked professional quality of librarianship.

Friends, to make a long story short, it's going to be okay. We've got skillz. Our treasure troves of trivia are the furthest thing from useless. Hang in there.