KU Libraries Policy for Reserve Access to Copyright-Protected Materials
Summer 2008 Course requests are due April 11, 2008. Your cooperation is critical to ensure that your readings are ready for your Spring courses. Please read the following for the latest.
Background to latest round of revision to copyright interpretation
We have completed another review of our current practices at the University of Kansas. Specifically, we have examined the guidelines at the University of Texas and Cornell University, two institutions that have developed guidelines consistent with the views of KU’s General Counsel Office. In Cornell’s case, the guidelines were adopted following legal action filed by the American Association of Publishers over concerns about the quantity of and access to library reserve readings.
The following general guidelines apply to KU Libraries’ reserve readings for spring 2008 semester.
- Copies of reserve materials will be limited to single articles or chapters; several charts, graphs or illustrations; or other small parts of a work.
- Readings for each semester will be considered independently, and all items submitted for electronic reserves will be subject to the application of the four factor Fair Use test (please see below).
- For materials that fail the Fair Use test, permission of the copyright holder must be received prior to making the material available to users.
- Access to course reserves material must be restricted to currently enrolled students only. The KU Libraries Electronic Course Reserves system will utilize complex passwords.
As a reminder the four factor Fair Use test, applied to determine the need for author’s permission, covers issues such as:
- Character of use- ranging from educational through criticism or commentary to commercial.
- Nature of the work to be used – ranging from facts to imaginative works.
- How much of the work will be used – small percentage vs. whole work.
- If widespread use is made of the item, would this impact the market for the original?
The critical reason that led to our needing to assign the earlier submission deadline is, for uses that fail the four factors of fair use, the need to seek permission prior to making the information available to students. After initial processing, and once we determine we need to seek permission, we typically are able to receive immediate permission from the Copyright Clearance Center for around 50% of the items we seek permission. Most of the remaining copyright permission requests take up to six weeks with some taking longer.
For good information on copyright, please visit the Association of Research Libraries website on copyright information. A downloadable brochure is available in the right hand side.
We will revise our workflow to support you as much as we can, within the framework of the KU copyright guidelines and the resources that are available to apply to this service. Please note that all of our licensed content is available online and you can link to it directly for your courses. See also
Appropriate Use of Licensed Electronic Resources.
If you have questions please contact Lars Leon, Head of Access Services and Resource Sharing at
lleon@ku.edu or (785) 864-3073.
Additional information which pertains to KU Libraries electronic reserves copyright
The KU Libraries' policy for providing access to copyright-protected
materials through reserve services, both electronic and print, is based
on the fair use provisions of the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976 (Title
17 of the U.S. Code). Section 107 of the Copyright Act expressly permits
the fair use of copyrighted materials for teaching (including multiple
copies for classroom use), scholarship, and research.
In determining whether a particular use is fair, four factors should
be considered:
- Purpose: The purpose and character of the use, including whether
such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational
purposes;
- Nature: The nature of the copyrighted work;
- Amount: The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation
to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
- Effect: The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value
of the copyrighted work.
All collections of the KU Libraries—regardless of physical format—are
purchased by the university for the nonprofit, educational use of students
and faculty. All library materials are acquired with the understanding
that there will be multiple uses of a limited number of copies. Libraries
frequently pay a premium institutional subscription price for journals
that is many times the individual subscription price, for the privilege
of supporting multiple academic users. The sole purpose of the electronic
reserve service is to support teaching, scholarship, and research. Considered
within this context, electronic reserve services have been developed by
the KU Libraries in a manner that conforms with the plain language of
the fair use provisions of the copyright law.
General Policies for Electronic Reserves
The following policies apply to materials that are scanned or downloaded
to the KU Libraries' electronic reserve service. These policies do not
apply to materials that are openly posted on the World Wide Web for which
direct links are included in the electronic reserve service; to links
to electronic resources licensed to the KU Libraries; to materials for
which no copyright protection is claimed; or to copyrighted materials
that have passed into the public domain.
- The Libraries will consider the statutory fair use factors in determining
whether or not the inclusion of materials in the electronic reserve
service is fair use. Electronic reserve materials will be limited to single articles or chapters; several charts, graphs or illustrations; or other small parts of a work. Longer works, such as complete books, will not be
copied for the electronic reserve service.
- All use of materials placed on electronic reserve will be at the
initiative of instructors solely for non-commercial, educational usage
by students.
- Materials from a copyrighted work will not be included in the electronic
reserve service unless the instructor, the libraries, or another unit
of the University posses a lawfully obtained copy of the work.
- Copyright notice will appear in the electronic reserve service and
on items included in the service to indicate that copying of materials
may be subject to copyright law. Any copyright notice appearing on
the original will also be included. Appropriate citations or attributions
to their sources will be included for all electronic files.
- Access to reserve materials will be limited to students registered
in the course for which the materials have been placed on reserve,
to instructors, and to staff responsible for the electronic reserve
service.
- There will be no charge for access to the electronic reserve service;
the charge for copies made by students will be limited to the nominal
cost of photocopies or laser prints.
- Electronic files will be removed from access on the electronic reserve
system at the conclusion of the course.
- If the nature, scope, or extent of use of copyrighted material,
including repeated use for multiple semesters, is judged by the library
to exceed the reasonable limits of fair use, the library will request
the copyright holder's permission to include the item in the electronic
reserve service. The item will not be available until permission of the copyright holder has been received.
The KU Libraries will continually monitor legal developments that may
affect the fair use analysis of electronic reserve services to ensure
that library services are in compliance with the letter and spirit of
the U.S. copyright law.
Additional copyright information:
University of Kansas General Counsel
http://www.counsel.ku.edu/
Reserves Home
Copyright © 2008 by the University of Kansas