Copyright & Fair Use Guidelines for Faculty: Sharing Resources With Your Students
In order to avoid infringing on copyright law, try to provide links to electronic resources in the library system rather than providing PDFs or other documents. However, if you copy the URL in your address bar, students will most likely not be able to access the article. Instead, you will need to find a permanent link that will lead directly to the page with the document. Depending on the database being used, this link may be called permalink, stable link, document URL, bookmark this document, direct link, etc.
The easiest way to link to any library resource, print or digital, is through Primo, our system that searches our books and databases. Find the article or book you wish to link. Click on the "chain link" icon. Copy the link into your course or email. This link takes students to the Primo interface record, and they can click through to the database containing the full-text article, the streaming film, or just get the book record for a print book. Be sure to log in to the library through Primo, and tell students to log in, or links may not work.
Can I copy from a book and share it with my students?
What if there is no e-book or PDF available to download, such as for a print book, and I need it for a course? Can I copy it and make my own PDF? Can we scan print materials owned by the library for students to read online or in class? Yes, schools are allowed "fair use" of copyrighted materials for educational purposes. However, fair use dictates limits on what is allowed.
*A good general rule is to copy and distribute no more than 10% of a book, or one article in a journal, or one chapter of a book.*
These are also the guidelines generally followed by our ILL/Document Delivery service, which can create PDFs of print books & articles within these limits for faculty and student use. Click "Request PDF" or "Need Chapter" for a print book in Primo.
For print books on campus, you can put them on course reserve behind the front desk. Contact reserves@regent.edu.
What about posting materials online?
The TEACH Act has expanded the scope of fair use for the performance and display of copyright-protected materials in a distance education environment, including platforms like Blackboard.
Instructors are strongly encouraged to use permalinks or hyperlinks to e-books or journal articles within library databases, which avoids copyright infringement. The best plan is to use Primo to get links. You can also obtain permalinks in most databases.
Please ask a librarian for assistance in building persistent hyperlinks to online resources.
What about using videos or movies in class?
Section 110 (1) of the Copyright Law enables teachers to perform or display a video or movie without a public performance license, so long as the use is 1) in a classroom or similar instruction space, 2) the use is part of a regularly scheduled course, and 3) the user must be exclusively by the instructor and the students in the classroom, in the course of face-to-face teaching activities. See Regent's copyright statement here.
Below are examples of how to find and copy a permanent link to a source through popular database vendors, including EBSCO and ProQuest. Ask a Librarian if you need additional assistance.
JSTOR stable link
In JSTOR, you will need to download the article, then copy the url for the downloaded resource from the browser.
Note that this link should start with www.jstor.org/stable/pdf