Please keep in mind that these are general guidelines; responses to individual course reserve requests may vary depending on type of material, content, copyright permissions, or other issues. All material is evaluated for course reserve use using fair use guidelines; as these guidelines evolve, the library procedures may evolve, and that all requests that an item be placed on course reserve are subject to these guidelines. Section 107 of the Copyright Act permits the reproduction of copyrighted works when done for the purpose of criticism, comments, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research and when the balance of four factors specified in the statute weighs in favor of a finding of fairness. The four factors of fair use (which the library will use in determining if an item can be placed on reserve) are as follows:
(1) The purpose and 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.
Four Factors of Fair Use |
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Purpose and Character of the Use a) Educational or Commercial b) Transformative or Reproduction c) Spontaneous or Repetitive
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Amount and Substantiality of the Portion Used a) Small amount vs. Larger quantity than needed to meet pedagogical objective b) Selection is or is not considered “heart of the matter”
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Nature of the Copyrighted Work a) Technical or Artistic b) Factual or Imaginative c) Published or Unpublished |
Effect of the Use on the Market a) Alternative to students purchasing original work? b) Ready market for the original? c) Avoiding payment of royalties?
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Personal Copies of Materials for Hard-Copy Reserve
Instructors may put personal copies of textbooks, books, videos (DVD/VHS), music CDs, and other hard copy materials on course reserve for checkout. Instructor-created and generated documents and materials may also be placed on hard-copy reserve. The following types of material, however, may not be placed on reserve: commercially-prepared or instructor-prepared course packs of any sort, workbooks, sample tests that are not created by the instructor, other consumable materials that accompany textbooks (solutions manuals may be placed on reserve), books owned by other libraries, or personally produced copies of any media.
Library-Owned items for Hard-Copy Reserve
In general, there are no copyright restrictions for library owned materials that an instructor wants to place on course reserve.
Journal Articles for Electronic Reserve
When the article requested for electronic reserve is available full text through a database that is subscribed to by the University of Florida libraries, staff will provide a link to the article in the database. The library will not post PDF files, Word files or other formats of documents that contain the full text of an article that is available in one of the subscribed databases. If the article is not available in the databases that the UF libraries subscribe to, we can scan and post the article under fair use guidelines for one semester; if the article is needed for subsequent semesters, the library staff will try to purchase copyright clearance for the article. instructors will be notified by the Course Reserve staff if there are any problems with posting articles. As a general rule, only one article per issue of a given journal can be made available for electronic reserve for a course; multiple articles from the same issue, or an entire issue of a journal cannot be put on electronic reserve. There are, as a rule, no restrictions on linking to articles in databases that the libraries subscribe to.
Book Chapters/Excerpts for Electronic Reserve
Excerpts from books owned by the library can be scanned and placed on electronic reserve under the following conditions:
- Approximately 10% of one book can be scanned and made available electronically. Submissions for book excerpts will be evaluated by the staff for adherence to fair-use guidelines; if there are problems, instructors will be notified by course reserve staff, and options to placing the material on electronic reserve will be offered (for example, placing a physical copy of the material on reserve, purchasing the copyright clearance for the material in question, etc.).
- All scans of personal copies of items submitted by instructors must include the complete bibliographic information of the title in question, and should include a copyright information statement (click HERE for a PDF copy that can be attached to existing PDF scans). Bibliographic information can be included either as a scan of front and back of the title page, or a citation including the title, author, publisher, publication date, and edition information.
- Scans from books not owned by the library can be made available online for one semester under fair-use guidelines; if material is needed for subsequent semesters, we will contact the instructor with options for making the material available (purchasing copyright clearance to make the material available online, putting the physical copy of the book on reserve, etc.).
- Scans of materials not owned by the library will follow the steps of materials owned by the library. If an item is going to be needed for multiple semesters, make a note of this in the course reserve request, and the library will attempt to purchase a copy of the material for the permanent collection.
Personally-Generated Material for Electronic Reserve
Personally-generated materials (Powerpoint presentations, class notes, sample tests created by the instructor, etc) can be placed on electronic reserve. Please note these restrictions:
- If the instructor placing the material on reserve is the sole author of the work in question, there are no restrictions. If there is more than one author, however, the Course Reserves department must have a signed form from the other author(s) allowing the work to be made available. Click HERE for a copy of the form.
- Student papers from previous semesters may be put on e-reserve, provided that the same form is filled out by the author granting permission to use the material.
- If you wish to keep personally-generated materials on reserve for multiple semesters, or if you wish to share them with other instructors, please consider placing your items in the IR@UF. This will allow instructors to simply link to the items, rather than uploading them and seeking permissions each term.
Links to Websites/Online Resources outside of UF
In general, links to websites outside of the UF domain can be made available for course reserve, provided that the material in question is freely available. Links to password-protected for-pay resources or other subscription-based sites, or materials from these sites that are violations of existing copyright are not acceptable.
If there is uncertainty about materials that might be placed on either hard-copy or electronic reserve, we encourage you to contact the Course Reserves main office at 352-273-2520 for additional information
