Copyright and the re-invention of libraries

Computers and other digital technologies have drastically altered libraries and their methods of handling information for their users. Unfortunately, legal limits, not technological ones, have hindered the technological revolution in libraries. In the absence of experimental evidence from libraries on the uses of information by staff and patrons, revisions have been made or have been proposed that will further hinder libraries and their technological efforts. Cooperative efforts between all of the parties affected - by libraries, publishers, authors, and readers - in quantitative and verified experiments on the uses of information technology will yield legal alterations in copyright and intellectual property law that will stand both the test of time and further technological innovation.