Copyright Information
U.S. Copyright law protects printed works, photographs, audio and video productions, art, music, software, and most of what you find in the library and on the Internet. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998 amends the U.S. Copyright Act (1976), strengthening rights for copyright owners. The law grants broad rights to copyright owners, reserving to them the right to make and distribute copies. Thus librarians and educators are often in conflict with these rights in the normal course of our work. Whenever we copy, scan or download protected material to make it available to others electronically, copyright issues arise. The primary “exception” to these rights is “fair use.”
Copyright and Reserves
- Copyright and Interlibrary Loan
- Copyright Guidelines
- Copyright and Fair Use in Higher Education
Material to be placed on reserve in Rice Library must include a notice of copyright. If only one copy is placed on reserve, an entire article, book chapter, or poem may be used. If multiple copies are placed on reserve, according to Kenneth Crews, "the amount of material should be reasonable in relation to the total amount of material assigned for one term of a course taking into account the nature of the course, its subject matter and level . . . the number of copies should be reasonable in light of the number of students enrolled, the difficulty and timing of assignments, and the number of other course which may assign the same material," and "the effect of photocopying the material should not be detrimental to the market for the work." [Kenneth D. Crews, Copyright, Fair Use, and the Challenge for Universities. University of Chicago Press, 1993, p. 205.]
Circulation staff in Rice Library will assist faculty members in evaluating how copyright affects course reserve materials before including materials in the system. The library encourages all faculty members to become familiar with the Copyright Office's Circular 21: Reproduction of Copyrighted Works by Educators and Librarians.
See also: "Requesting Materials for Reserve"
