The purpose of this paper is to examine how Kenyan academic librarians, with varying education levels, solve and handle copyright issues when presented to them by library users. A survey questionnaire was administered to 253 librarians in 14 universities in Nairobi, Kenya. Of those who responded to the survey, a think aloud protocol and critical incident technique interview were administered to a convenience sample of 32 librarians. Learned helplessness was found to exist among librarians who were Certificate and Diploma holders when faced with copyright queries. Librarians from the different education levels differed in their ranking of problem‐solving strategies they employ when it comes to stopping copyright infringement in libraries.