Dwayne K. Buttler

Evelyn J. Schneider Endowed Chair for Scholarly Communication

University Libraries

Dwayne K. Buttler, J.D., holds a faculty appointment as professor with University Libraries. Much of his work and research focuses on the complex relationship of copyright law and licensing to the activities at the core of the university and library’s mission of teaching, learning and scholarly communication.

Buttler works with individual faculty members, librarians and administrators to address copyright and scholarly communication issues at U of L and elsewhere. He also teaches mass communication law and intellectual property courses at U of L.

As a presenter at regional and national conferences, Buttler helps raise awareness of copyright law and advocates for the preservation of crucial user rights — including the fair use exemption — within U.S. copyright law. He has made presentations that address copyright, licensing and preservation activities at national conferences of the American Library Association and the Associations of Colleges and Research Libraries.

At the core of Buttler's research are new user needs that will require legal reform in an increasingly digital society. Those needs include such activities as digital preservation, online learning, electronic publishing and open access to scholarship. Buttler also is working in a regional effort to understand and comment on issues that arise from so-called orphaned works in copyright law -- those for which the copyright owner is unknown or sometimes unknowable -- as part of a U.S. Copyright Office inquiry. He participated in two national "roundtable" discussions of those issues held by the Copyright Office and the Library of Congress.

He has contributed as an advisor and reviewer to an Association of Research Libraries initiative to create web-based and print materials addressing multiple perspectives in the research community as part of a campus copyright initiative.

Buttler’s publications include contributions to Complete Copyright: An Everyday Guide for Librarians Chicago, IL: ALA Editions, 2004, by Carrie Russell and to Copyright Essentials for Librarians and Educators, Chicago, IL: ALA Editions, 2000, by Kenneth D. Crews.

Buttler earned a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from the Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in telecommunications from Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis. He also has served as the senior copyright analyst at the Copyright Management Center, IUPUI, and as the director of information science at the Advanced Research & Technology Institute, Indiana University.