RE: Physical Copy Reserves Question

["Davis, Rick K." <rkDavis@xxxxxxxxxx>]

If the purpose of having the professor sign something is to get their written
agreement to the fact that the library can't guarantee their personal items
will be returned to them or that they will be returned in the same condition
they were in when the professor left them (since even reserve items can get
lost or damaged),  then I can see the reason for doing so.

But there is absolutely no reason for doing this, copyright-wise, if the
library is merely putting on physical reserve the professor's lawfully
acquired personal copy of a book (as opposed to a photocopy of a book
excerpt). None of the copyright owners exclusive rights is infringed by doing
this, since you aren't making an "unauthorized" copy and since any
distribution the library would be engaged in would be covered under the first
sale limitation.

Putting a sticker on the books stating your copyright policy also seems
completely unnecessary. Do you put such stickers on the books you have in your
stacks?

Rick

-----Original Message-----
From: Bryant, Sally [mailto:Sally.Bryant@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Thursday, September 01, 2011 1:57 PM
To: digital-copyright@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Physical Copy Reserves Question

At the main branch our academic library we have been having the professors
sign our copyright policy for everything we put on reserve for them -
including our own copies of books and DVDs. I just found out on of our branch
libraries does not do this because they feel they would just need to have the
professors sign it if it would be duplicated in some way (which we do not
do).

I asked a fellow librarian who is a lawyer and she said we should have the
professors sign for everything - just to err on the side of caution. She also
said we should put a sticker with our copyright policy on our reserve books.

What does everyone do about this? What would be some good wording for a
sticker to put on the books?

Thanks!

Sally Bryant
Head of Access Services
Payson Library
Pepperdine University
310-506-4262