Finding Parents for Orphan Works: Using Genealogical Methods to Locate Heirs for Obtaining Copyright Permissions

Faculty and students frequently want to use copyrighted material in their books, articles, presentations, and instructional materials, but because such usage often falls outside Creative Commons and Fair Use guidelines, they will need to obtain permissions for the use of the material in those cases. Because current copyright law has resulted in long durations for copyright, the copyright owner may be very difficult to identify and locate, resulting in a large number of “orphan works.” When the original copyright owner is deceased, it will be necessary to locate an appropriate heir to contact in order to obtain the needed permissions. Genealogical methods can be used to identify and locate these heirs, but because these methods are usually unfamiliar to academic librarians, the librarian may feel unable to assist the faculty member or student with this type of search. This article demonstrates how these methods are easy to learn and apply, using case studies in which an academic librarian, within a brief period of time, was able to access readily available online genealogical sources and to apply basic genealogical techniques in order to identify and locate heirs to a deceased copyright owner.