ABSTRACT
It will come as no surprise to frequent readers of Visual Resources or to anyone whose occupation it is to tend to the visual information needs of academia and elsewhere, that a transformation is in progress. What had once been a profession in which photographic technology, equipment assessment, accessibility of sources, meeting production schedules, and working and developing filing and retrieval systems occupied the greater part of one’s time, in recent years has become a profession in which the legal process by which its goals are achieved is assuming a vastly disproportionate claim to the time and attention of image workers. No single topic exemplifies this transformation more acutely than that which speaks of the rights pursuant to using and obtaining images-copyright and intellectual property. The papers in this volume speak to those issues surrounding the processes of obtaining and using images-what rights and freedoms custodians of visual resources collections may claim for themselves; what obligations they owe to the owners of copyright and their representatives; what procedures they may invoke to lay claim to their rights and to oblige the rights of others; how best to mine and secure the promises of electronic media and distribution systems; and which systems, protocols, license arrangements, exemptions, and organizational structures are best to meet the needs of those in this profession.
