 Hello, my name is Gerald Beasley, Vice Provost and Chief Librarian at the University of Alberta. The purpose of copyright legislation is to balance the rights of creators and the rights of users to maximise public benefit both social and economic. While there are some statutory differences between Canadian and US copyright law, this underlying purpose or goal is something they have in common. Great statutes tend to focus on defining or establishing the rights of creators and then identifying limited exceptions to form the basis of users' rights. One of these statutory exceptions is fair use in the US or fair dealing in Canada. Each of these allow for limited use of copyrighted material without permission or payment. Creators can be crucibles for copyright issues. Major research universities like the University of Alberta have a large number of creators and an even larger number of users of copyrighted material. On top of that copyright issues can be complicated by new technology that facilitates the reproduction and distribution of copyrighted material. Faculty and students tend to be at the leading edge as users of such new technologies. Work done at universities for educational, scholarly and research purposes contributes significantly to the public good. Access to copyrighted material produced by others plays an essential role in performing that work. Scholars learn from and build upon the creative work of those who have come before and undue restrictions on the access to and use of such creative work can impede the advances of scholarship. Fair use and fair dealing are important tools in maintaining appropriate levels of access and use. A liberal interpretation and application of fair use and fair dealing should be encouraged, especially for universities. In every case, this should involve consideration of the balance of rights. Focus groups on the University of Alberta campus have made it apparent that a significant number of students and professors are concerned about using any copyrighted material without permission, even when the use falls within the reasonable limits of fair dealing. As a result, they are restricting their use for fear of having to deal with groundless cease and desist letters or legal action. Analyses, under fair dealing and fair use, often have a subjective and interpretive nature. As technology advances or new and innovative applications arise, there may be little guidance from statute or case law to support new interpretations for such analyses. These issues and concerns are shared by universities. In order to properly address them, it makes sense for universities to work together to establish communities of practice. This will help ensure that reasonable guidelines for interpretation and analysis around fair use and fair dealing can be consistently applied across universities. Fair use and fair dealing are invaluable legal provisions that assist university researchers, instructors and students in meeting their scholarly objectives. It is extremely important that these provisions are well understood and that they are fully and appropriately applied.