Intro/Policy | Fair Use | TEACH Act | Print/e-Reserves | Coursepacks | Permissions

Information Services
Course Reserves Policies

Link to Course Reserves Procedures

Introduction

Faculty, staff and students are responsible for following the Connecticut College Copyright Policy relative to their reserve materials.  Items that fall under fair use, as well as those that are not covered by copyright, e.g., public domain materials, may be placed on reserve without obtaining copyright permission or paying copyright royalties in most cases. Exceptions are noted below under “When are Permissions or Fees Required?”  The library staff will not place anything on reserve, or allow electronic reserves to remain accessible, that they believe to be in violation of copyright law.  Materials placed on Moodle sites by faculty that the library knows is not in compliance with copyright policy or law will be removed from the site. 

Library Collections

The collections of the Connecticut College libraries are purchased and provided for the nonprofit educational use of students and faculty. All library materials are acquired and accepted with the understanding that there will be multiple uses of a limited number of purchased copies. Libraries frequently pay a premium institutional subscription price for journals that are many times the individual subscription price for the purpose of supporting multiple academic users.

Fair Use

The United States Copyright Act of 1976 (Section 107) expressly permits the making of multiple copies for classroom use. Such classroom copying is one of the specific examples of uses that do not require the payment of a royalty or the permission of the copyright owners provided that the circumstances of the use are fair as assessed by four factors:

1. The purpose or character of the use, including whether such
   use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational
   purposes;
2. The nature of the copyrighted work;
3. The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation
   to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value
   of the copyrighted work.

Connecticut College library reserves services are used solely for non-profit educational purposes. Copies may be made for reserve without securing copyright permission if the copying is related directly to the educational objectives of a specific course and if the copyrighted material is limited to brief works, or brief excerpts from longer works. Examples include a single chapter from a book, a single article from a journal, or unrelated news articles.

Public Domain Materials

Many materials, such as government documents and older publications, are in the public domain and not protected by copyright. Items in both of these categories may be photocopied for reserve without permission. Refer to the University of North Carolina's When Works Pass into the Public Domain compiled by Laura Gasaway, Director of the Law Library & Professor of Law, University of North Carolina.

Faculty Owned Materials

Materials owned by an individual may be placed on reserve, either print or Moodle E-Reserves subject to Fair Use determination. 

When are Permissions or Fees Required?

Faculty must obtain permission or pay appropriate royalty fees in order to place the following types of materials on either print reserve or to post them on Moodle accounts:

• Originals, photocopies, or digitized copies of standardized tests, exercises, or workbooks.
• Photocopies or digitized copies of an entire book, musical score or other work, or substantial portions of a book, score or other work.
• Other materials that do not meet a fair use determination.

General Guidelines for Print Reserve and Moodle E-Reserves

• All materials placed on print reserve and Moodle will be at the initiative of faculty for the non-commercial, educational usage of students.

• Whenever possible, materials to be used for print reserve and Moodle will be those owned or licensed by the library.

• Users may make one copy for private study, personal reading, research scholarship, or education.

• Users of the Moodle course management system must comply with the Teach Act in the use of copyright-protected materials.

• All copies, whether in print or digitized form, must include a notice of copyright: i.e.: © year of first publication, if known, name of copyright holder, if known, and a full bibliographic reference (author, title, journal title or book publisher, and date). Materials submitted for reserve without a full citation may be returned to the faculty member for the addition of the required information

• The copyright notice, "The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted materials. Users may be liable for copyright infringement." will appear on course access screen in the Moodle system and individual users will accept this liability prior to being allowed to access Moodle materials.

• The library will not place materials on reserve, or allow Moodle materials to remain on college servers, without permission if the nature, scope, or extent of copying is judged by Information Services to exceed the reasonable limits of fair use. Faculty must obtain permission or pay appropriate royalties in order to place copies of longer works (or substantial portions of longer works), such as complete books and performance score

• Access to the Moodle system is limited by password to students enrolled in a particular course. There is no charge for access to either print reserve or materials on Moodle.

• Faculty should remove electronic files from Moodle sites when they are no longer needed for student access.

Further Information

The electronic scanning of copyright-protected works for library reserve services, whether electronic or print, is an unsettled area of the law that may be addressed in future revisions of the copyright law or through adjudication. Connecticut College will monitor this and other 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 United States Copyright Law.

This work is based on policy and procedure at Oberlin College, Duke University, and the University of Wisconsin- Madison.