The Ghana Library Association (GLA) on Thursday called for a review of the portion of the Copyright Act 2005, Act 690, on copyright exceptions and limitations for libraries to ensure that the law did not retard the important role of libraries towards socio-economic development.
In a statement issued in Accra on World Book and Copyright Day, GLA said exceptions and limitations were important to libraries everywhere but they were of critical importance to Ghana whose capacity to access knowledge was crucial to her social and economic development.
It noted that the role of librarians was to protect and promote access to knowledge and learning materials and one of the key mechanisms was through exceptions and limitations.
GLA noted that, "permitted use" in the Copyright Act limited what libraries could do with copyright works.
"Perhaps, it is time for the exception to be extended to accommodate the crucial role of libraries, in order not to retard their important support towards socio-economic development," the statement said.
"There is therefore the need to review the Copyright Law to support these objectives and it is also important that the library community is involved in the process to enable it to advocate for amendments that will reflect the public interest and the real needs of Ghanaian libraries."
GLA reiterated that the greatest resource for development was the human resource saying libraries of all types provided access to knowledge, learning and ideas, and were an essential component in fostering creative, innovative and prosperous societies.
It said the effectiveness of educational institutions in turning out successful students, quality graduates for the labour market and the most highly skilled researchers depended on the provision of quality learning support services provided by libraries.
GLA noted that achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) was one of the biggest challenges facing Ghana and personnel whose training was essential for the success of the targets often relied on the university library for learning and research material for their courses.
It said the purpose of copyright was to encourage the creation of and dissemination of knowledge but over the years the copyright system had become increasingly unbalanced as new rights for copyright owners had been introduced and the term protection extended, while exceptions and limitations for users had not kept pace.
The use of licence terms that overrode statutory exceptions and limitations for access and use of digital content had created further pressure on libraries providing services in the digital environment.
"For libraries, copyright exceptions and limitations are critical to meeting our missions to support learning and research, promote the flow of information, provide equitable access to information to the public preserve cultural heritage and encourage free expression," it stressed.