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Guidelines for E-reserves

Emmanuel d’Alzon Library’s guidelines for providing access to copyright-protected materials through its e-reserve service are based on the fair use provisions of the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976 (Title 17 of the United States Code). Section 107 of the Copyright Act expressly permits fair use of copyrighted materials for teaching, scholarship and research.  The conditions for fair use are determined by a considering the four factors specified in Section 107:
  1. The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of 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.
  4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. 
When processing e-reserve requests, Library staff will follow the general guidelines listed below:
  • Library Reserves staff will limit the portion of any single book scanned to a small portion of the book (typically a chapter or two).
  • A single article from a particular issue of a journal can be scanned and uploaded to Brightspace.  
  • Links to articles will be posted when an article is available freely on the web or through a library database subscription.
  • The Library will attempt to purchase any material used for e-reserve that it does not already own.
  • Materials that do not fall within fair use may be placed on e-reserve, if the instructor has obtained permission from the copyright holder.

Guidelines for Videos

To best position yourself to assert a fair use argument when using video, consider doing the following:

  • Link to the video if possible rather than making an electronic copy available to students. Linking to materials is ordinarily not a violation of copyright but rather a technological instruction for locating materials.
  • If copying a video, do not use any more of the video than the amount needed to serve your purpose.
  • Avoid copying videos from materials created and marketed primarily for use in courses such as the one at hand (e.g. from a textbook, workbook, or other instructional materials designed for the course). Use of more than a brief excerpt from such works on digital networks is unlikely to be transformative and therefore unlikely to be a fair use.
  • Make sure that the video content serves a pedagogical purpose; do not use as entertainment.
  • Place the video in the context of the course, explaining why it was chosen and what it was intended to illustrate. Recontextualize the video when appropriate through the addition of background readings, study questions, commentary, criticism, annotation, and student reactions.
  • Limit access to the video to students enrolled in the course.
  • Use streaming or other technologies that limit students' ability to download, copy, or redistribute the material.
  • Notify students that videos are being made available for teaching, study, and research only.
  • Provide attributions to known copyright owners of the videos.

--Fair Use and Copyright for Online Education: Examples: Video. University of Rhode Island LibGuide. Used with permission. CC-BY