The CC license tools are now the global standard for sharing of works for use and reuse. From Wikipedia, to open access to research and journals, to open education, to open data, these license tools are an essential element of a more equitable and accessible knowledge commons.
Our goal at Creative Commons is to build a vibrant, usable commons of creativity and knowledge, powered by collaboration and gratitude. By default, copyright applies to all original content, so sharing under a copyright license is always a choice. This means we need to help people understand their options, and how they can use the CC licensing tools to maximum benefit. To do this, we need people all around the world to be experts in using, contributing to, and sharing the commons and the open licensing tools that unlock its full potential.
We know that the best way to help others is to give them the knowledge they need to help themselves. And we know that CC’s greatest power is sharing—of knowledge, of culture, and of understanding across cultures and communities—so for the first time, we literally wrote the book on Creative Commons, and we are sharing it with everyone. Creative Commons for Educators and Librarians is a publication of the CC Certificate course content. The CC Certificate is about investing in people like you: educators, practitioners, creators, open advocates, and activists all over the world. You’re the ones who everyday help people make the choice to share and unleash their content so that everyone can benefit from it. That’s why we created the CC Certificate course, it’s why we’re working with our communities to translate the course content and train new leaders to teach it in local languages, and it’s why we’ve made all the content openly accessible under CC BY—to unlock new uses we haven’t imagined yet.
We hope this book will help us get a little closer to that goal, and perhaps help us to grow the global community of experts, and ultimately our collective power, through shared knowledge and culture.
Ryan Merkley
CEO, Creative Commons (2014–2019)
