Copyright Resources for Faculty & Students_UPDATED: Course Reserves

Copyright compliant materials that instructors wish to place on reserve for a course may be physically reserved in the DIU Library or made available electronically through the course Canvas site.  DIU Library reserves policies follow the fair use provisions outlined in U.S. copyright law.  Faculty are encouraged to place materials on course reserve rather than post directly to a course site to avoid copyright infringement. 

To place items on reserve, please submit the online reserves request form.  In order to have material on reserve for the first week of classes, we encourage submission of the form at least 3 weeks prior to the beginning of the semester.  Please contact library@diu.edu for assistance with the course reserves process.

The DIU Library will do the following regarding course reserves:

• place material requested by an instructor for the educational use of students on reserve
• evaluate material to determine fair use before placing on reserve
• request permission from copyright holders when necessary in order to place items on e-reserve
• evaluate purchasing or licensing material as needed
• limit online access to DIU students, faculty, and staff associated with the course 

Materials that Can Be Placed on Reserve

• Books in their original format that are legally owned by the DIU Library or a faculty member
• Media in its original format that is legally owned by the DIU Library or a faculty member
• Works or sections of works in the public domain
• Works or sections of works produced by the U.S. government
• Portions of books, journal articles, and other print resources that fall within "fair use"
• Materials created by the instructor for the course
• Copyrighted materials for which the instructor has obtained permission to use

Permission to place scanned journal articles or book chapters on reserve for multiple semesters may require obtaining written copyright permission from the copyright holder, licensing, or library purchase of the book or journal.  DIU Library reserves the right to refuse to place materials on reserve if they deem that those materials exceed fair use and would constitute copyright infringement.

Materials that May Not Be Placed on Reserve

The following items likely constitute copyright infringement and therefore would not be eligible for placement on reserve:

• Scanned or electronic copies of materials obtained through Interlibrary Loan
• Consumables, such as workbooks
• Course packs
• Personally reproduced versions of copyrighted films, television programs, documentaries, sound recordings, etc.
• Excessive portions of copyrighted works that exceed fair use
• Materials for which there is no clearly defined owner (ex/ scanned articles passed from person to person)
• Works prohibited by licensing restrictions

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.  
Sections of this guide are reused or adapted from Florida State University Libraries and Bentley University Library with permission.