Built upon "UT System Rules of Thumb for Reserves"

Reserve copies should be a small part of the materials required for a course and obtained legally by the faculty member or the library through purchase, license, interlibrary loan, fair use, etc. CONFU (Conference on Fair Use) guidelines stipulate that reserve articles should not substitute for the purchase of a textbook.

Copies of copyrighted materials placed on reserve can be: a single article or chapter; a short story, poem or essay; or a few graphs, charts or pictures.

Reserve copies should include any copyright notice on the original, complete citation and attributions to the source, and a section 108(f)(l) notice that reads, "Copying, displaying and distributing copyrighted works may infringe the owner's copyright."

Access to copies, whether paper or electronic, should be limited to students enrolled in the class and administrative staff as needed. Access is to be terminated at the end of the class term.

Copies of copyrighted materials that will be used repeatedly by the same instructor for the same class require permission from the copyright holder. Generally the first semester a copy is placed on reserve, permission will not be required unless there is some factor that negates it falling under fair use guidelines.

If permission has to be sought, one (1) copy will be placed on reserve (either electronic or paper -- the faculty member may choose). Once permission is received additional paper copies may be placed on reserve if so desired. The following credit line should go on copied material authorized by the Copyright Clearance Center: "Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder via the Copyright Clearance Center".

If permission is denied or the royalty charge excessive, the copy will be removed from reserve and returned to the faculty member. If the original work is owned by the Library, it may be placed on reserve in place of the copy.

If the original work is placed on reserve (a book or journal issue for example) then copyright permission does not have to be sought.

If an article to be placed on reserve is already available electronically and our licensing agreement allows, we will point to that location from the reserve list instead of scanning and posting the article.

Photocopies of entire works and coursepacks will not be placed on reserve.