Electronic Reserves Policy

  The Albion College Library policy for electronic reserves is based on the principle that the fair use provisions of the Copyright Act of 1976, Section 207 permits reproduction of copyrighted material for classroom use as long as the four determining fair use  factors are considered.  This policy also includes a number of  the guidelines included in the March 5, 1996 Fair Use Guidelines for Electronic Reserve Systems developed by participants in the Conference on Fair Use (CONFU). The Albion College Library  monitors the evolving digital copyright policies and guidelines and will modify this policy as necessary.

Placement of  Materials on Electronic Reserve

The Albion College Library will place material requested by Albion College faculty on electronic reserve under the following conditions:

·        The Albion College Library has a current license for access to copyrighted electronic publications i.e. Electronic Collections Online, etc.  In these instances the citation and link to the electronic version of the material will be added to the electronic reserve system, thus providing direct access to the requested material.  (If our system can handle it)

-or-

·        A print version of any copyrighted material to be copied or scanned for electronic reserves has been lawfully acquired by or will be purchased by the library or instructor and it is the first semester it has been requested.  Library staff will scan the material for placement in the electronic reserve system.  The scanned material will be available for use during that semester in which the course is given.

-or-

·        It is not copyrighted, i.e. some government documents,  works in the public domain. etc.

The following conditions also apply: 

·        There will be no charge for access to electronic reserve materials.

·        A copyright notice will appear on screen in the online reserve system and on copies of copyrighted material made of reserve readings. 

·        Copyrighted materials on reserve will be accessible only by instructor’s name, course name, and course number.  We are currently authenticating to limit access by current Albion College students.  In future, user authentication measures may be implemented to limit access to students enrolled in the course for which the material is placed on reserve.    

Guidelines for Scanning or Copying Materials for Electronic Reserve

 The Albion College Library staff will scan copyrighted materials for placement on electronic reserve without obtaining copyright permission so long as they do not exceed our guidelines for fair use as listed below: 

It is the first time the materials will be placed on electronic reserve by an instructor for a  particular course and it is

·        No more than one article from a journal issue or newspaper

-or-

·        No more than one chapter from a book

-or-

·        An excerpt from a prose work so long as the excerpt does not exceed more than 10% of the work.

-or-

·        No more than one chart, graph, diagram, drawing, cartoon or picture per book or per journal issue. 

The Albion College Library will refuse to scan or copy and place on electronic reserve copyrighted material which has been previously used for a particular course if copyright permission for reuse for that course has not been obtained. 

Obtaining Permission 

The library staff will attempt to obtain permission for copyrighted materials that instructors wish to put on electronic reserves.  Because this is a time consuming process, requests must be submitted at least 6 weeks in advance. 

Disposition of Digitized Reserve Materials 

At the end of each quarter, all copyrighted material in the electronic reserve database will be destroyed unless: 

·        The Albion College instructor indicates that he/she plans to reuse the material in subsequent offerings of the same course.  In these instances the digital version will be retained until permission to reuse the copyrighted material is secured and any requested payments have been made.

·       If permission for reuse is not granted, the digital copy will be destroyed.