The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction of copyrighted material for the purposes of “private study, scholarship, or research.” The library will honor Course Reserves or Electronic Reserves requests to support class study.

In keeping with generally accepted standards of copyright law for academic libraries, the following restrictions apply:

1. Items placed on Course Reserves must be owned by the library or the faculty member. The library will accept purchase requests for items not owned, but please note that these will require extra processing time.
2. The library will assess all chapter and article requests to determine eligibility for the fair use exemption in copyright law. The library will request copyright permission and pay any reasonable fees for material it determines to exceed the fair use exemption.
3. If the library is unable to obtain copyright permission, or copyright costs exceed what is reasonable, we will contact the faculty member to explore alternate methods for providing appropriate materials.
4. Due to licensing agreements, requested material that is available electronically through a ZSR paid database will be posted as a link to the item in a database.