As institutions around the country work to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, library copyright specialists and others have published a growing body of supporting material to help campuses deal specifically with access to learning materials and related copyright issues that are arising as universities (and especially libraries) work to provide education in extraordinary ways during these extraordinary times. Open Educational Resources provide enormous advantages in these times because of their flexible use and adaptation permissions, and courses built with OER will face little or no challenges from copyright as they pivot to online teaching. Faculty and librarians working to convert courses that rely on in-copyright works, however, will need to consider a variety of strategies, outlined in the resources on this page.
The global response to COVID-19 is also providing the research community with an opportunity to reflect on whether the traditional publishing ecosystem provides the speed and transparency necessary for an effective response to health crises. At the same time, the benefits of openness during the crisis have been cited by many as a reason to adopt open research and publishing practices as the norm. Some exemplary essays and articles on this issue will be collected below.