Course Reserves Policy & Procedures

Reserves Coordinator

Jennifer Bennett (wbennett@conncoll.edu), Assistant Manager Access Services

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 are 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.

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 class Moodle pages 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. Click here for more information on fair use.

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 electronic reserve without permission. You can click here for a helpful chart prepared by Cornell University that details when various items enter the public domain. 

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 reserve will be at the initiative of faculty for the non-commercial, educational usage of students.
• Whenever possible, materials to be used for print and e-reserve will be those owned or licensed by the library.
• The library encourages faculty, wherever possible, to place a multi-user electronic book on reserve rather than a print book.
• In addition, the library encourages linking to library-licensed resources
• Where possible, the library encourages the placing of a digitized copy of a chapter on Moodle in lieu of a print book on reserve. To foster this practice, library staff will digitize chapters for faculty, staff and students. To request a chapter, log into OneSearch, find a book and click “Request Digitized Chapter.” Then, fill out the form that comes up. Due to copyright restrictions, staff will only digitize up to two chapters, or 10 percent, of a book. Requests are filled on a first-come, first-serve basis; library staff will work to fill requests within a week (but cannot guarantee a turnaround time).
• Users may make one copy for private study, personal reading, research scholarship, or education.
• All articles, book chapters or excerpts on Moodle 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). 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 the 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 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. In order to place copies of longer works (or substantial portions of longer works), such as complete books and performance scores on e-reserve, faculty must obtain permission, pay appropriate royalties, or contact the Reserves Coordinator to explore other avenues to obtain access to the work in question.   Access to the Moodle system is limited by password to students enrolled in a particular course. There is no charge for access to print or e-reserve materials.
• Faculty should remove electronic files from Moodle sites when they are no longer needed for student access.

   

These policies are based on policy and procedure at Oberlin College, Duke University, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.