RE: Intellectual property question

["Blobaum, Paul" <p-blobaum@xxxxxxxxx>]

Valerie,

I have a couple of Communications Disorders courses which have readings
for the same purpose... there is no required textbook but there are
required readings.  When we started e-reserves, we were enthusiastic on
promoting it and didn't pay close attention to the copyright
implications... and one course wound up with something like 90 readings
online from scanned articles.  Since that time we have developed
copyright policies and procedures which really limit what goes up for
e-reserve due to permissions and royalties, and the time of the staff
involved. We have a rule of thumb to limit e-reserve readings that need
permissions to 20 items...  but if the professor wants to get copyright
permissions for more than that we will work with them on it.  No one in
the library is dedicated to coordinating e-reserves, all 5 library
faculty and 3-4 LTA persons are involved with various roles, and it is
sort of a communications nightmare to get things done.  The CDIS
professor mentioned above has a copy duplication agreement from ASHA
which helps; he can make unlimited copies from ASHA journals for
students with this blanket license, and we use that for some e-reserve
clearances.

However, we have found that linking to full text articles from Ebsco,
Proquest, etc helps a lot.  Georgia Harper from U Texas has given the
opinion that downloading the PDF from the full text to a secure server
for ease of access by students in a particular class is within the
standard licensing arrangements, unless expressly prohibited.  We might
have to start doing this a bit because we have a problem with some
durable links which don't seem so durable (from Proquest).

Having a physical copy of a book on reserve for students to make copies
of is not a problem.

This is what we are doing anyway.

Paul Blobaum          708-534-4990 x5142
University Professor and Health Sciences Librarian
Governors State University Library
University Park, IL  60466       p-blobaum@xxxxxxxxx

-----Original Message-----
From: Valerie A. Lang [mailto:langval@xxxxxxxx]
Sent: Friday, September 17, 2004 10:13 AM
To: digital-copyright@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Intellectual property question

Colleagues,

Suppose a professor is developing a new course for which there is no
textbook available.  How can an instructor assign students to read a
selection of articles as the "text" for the course without running afoul
of
copyright?