Menu Close
Lead Copyright Officer, Librarian, University of Michigan

Melissa Levine is Lead Copyright Officer at the University of Michigan Library providing guidance on copyright policy and practice in the university context. She is a lecturer at the University of Michigan School of Information where she teaches a course on intellectual property and information law. Melissa is also on the faculty of the masters in museum studies program at Johns Hopkins Krieger School of Arts and Sciences Advanced Academic Programs teaching a course on museums, law, and policy. She was the principal investigator for two grants from the Institute for Museum and Library Studies on the copyright status of books in HathiTrust resulting in the publication, Finding the Public Domain: Copyright Review Management System Toolkit (available freely online).

Melissa has wide-ranging experience in museum and library policy and hands-on management supporting the stewardship of cultural collections. She was the Exhibits and Outreach Librarian, University of Michigan Library (2008); Acting Director, Frost Art Museum, Florida International University (2007); Associate Director for Finance and Administration at the Wolfsonian Museum (2003-2007); and Acting Curator of the World Bank’s Art program (2001-2003). At the Smithsonian Institution, she handled licensing and contract negotiations for publishing, product development, electronic rights, audiovisual media, exhibitions, and festivals (1990-1996). Ms. Levine was Assistant General Counsel and Legal Advisor for the Library of Congress’ National Digital Library Project, working on cutting-edge issues of digital preservation and Internet access for American history primary materials in print, text, image, music, sound recordings, and film media (1996-2001). She developed copyright and other rights and permissions policies for worldwide dissemination of collections online, advised senior management on intellectual property and related business and strategic issues.

orcid.org/0000-0003-1104-2911

Experience

  • –present
    Lead Copyright Officer, Librarian, University of Michigan

Honours

L. Ray Patterson Copyright Award In Support of Users' Rights, American Library Association, Office for Information Technology Policy, 2016; Recognition of Outstanding Leadership Contribution, American Bar Association, Section of Intellectual Property, 2013