Copyright Information

Sharing books, articles and media with students is important to teaching and learning at DePauw, but the complexities of copyright law can make it difficult to figure out the best way to provide those materials. The Access Services department at the Library is here to help you navigate these complexities while reducing costs and risks in the process.

We can help you…

…place your items on reserve in the library or online. Library reserves can be physical items or links into databases and other licensed content. Reserves can also be used to post small sections of scanned works including book chapters, portions of fiction works, and journal articles. Reserves should not be used to reproduce the same copyrighted material for the same course repeatedly. For more information about reserves visit http://www.depauw.edu/library/howto/putonreserves.asp.

…prepare a course pack to be printed by DePauw’s Printing Services. All course packs are reviewed for copyright compliance and are then sold to students through the University bookstore. For additional information and to order a coursepack, follow this link: http://www.depauw.edu/library/howto/makeacoursepack.asp.

You may also prepare a course pack yourself through XanEdu, a commercial service which obtains the copyright permissions as part of its services. These are then sold through the University Bookstore. For more information, you can contact XanEdu through the University Bookstore or XanEdu Customer Service at 1-800-218-5971 ext. 6553.

After careful investigation, we have concluded that the following options may place DePauw and individual faculty members at risk of legal liability:

  • Repeated use and posting of copyrighted material to a course website, including Moodle.
  • Photocopying and distributing material in class, unless it meets the classroom guidelines for spontaneity and brevity.
  • Creating anthologies of copyrighted works and placing those on print reserve.

If you have any questions about providing legal access to copyrighted materials for your students, please visit the Reserves website at (http://www.depauw.edu/library/howto/putonreserves.asp) or contact Mandy Henk (amandahenk@depauw.edu), Access Services Librarian, or Rick Provine (provine@depauw.edu), Director of Libraries. We will be happy to work with you to ensure that students have cost effective and convenient access to your course materials.

Thank you for your assistance and cooperation.