Copyright and Spring 2021 courses

This notice is from the archives of The Notice Board. Information contained in this notice was accurate at the time of publication but may no longer be so.

As you prepare for your Spring 2021 courses, please keep in mind that copyright help is available if you plan to use materials such as articles and chapters as course readings, or wish to make arrangements for your students to view films online.

U of L Copyright website resources:

  • Copyright Permissions Flow Chart:  Outlines when permission is and is not needed.
  • Guidelines for Copying under Fair Dealing:  Summarizes what fair dealing is under the Canadian Copyright Act and kinds of copying that may be permissible without permission or fee payment.  See also the FAQ on fair dealing.
  • Readings in Moodle:  An overview of your options for distributing copyrighted materials in Moodle.  See also the page on reusing contentfrom a prior semester.
  • Readings on E-Reserve:  Find out how to put readings and other items on E-Reserve as an alternative to Moodle.  In some cases, the Library may be able to acquire e-book excerpts you need via Interlibrary Loan for placement on E-Reserves, or you may send scans you have made to the copyright office for formatting.  (Print Reserve will not be available while the Library is closed during the COVID-19 pandemic).
  • Articles in Library e-journals:  Use the Copyright Permissions Look-up tool to determine, for example, whether you can download an article from a particular journal into Moodle, or share it with a colleague outside of the U of L.
  • Chapters in Library e-books:  Find out how many users may access an e-book (or an e-book chapter) concurrently.
  • Harvard Business Review (HBR) articles:  An FAQ on options for using “top 500” online HBR articles as assigned readings in your courses. 
  • Copyright Q & As:  A series of interactive copyright tutorials, beginning with foundational issues such as “What kind of right is copyright?”

If your students will need online access to particular films for your course, please contact your subject librarian for assistance in determining whether streaming access is in place or can be arranged.  In the event that the Library owns the DVD but commercial streaming access is unavailable, subject librarians will ask the Copyright Advisor office to assess whether the film can be made available on YuJa under the Copyright Act’s fair dealing provision. Investigating streaming availability and converting a Library DVD to a streaming format are time-consuming, so please submit your online film viewing requests to your subject librarian well in advance of your desired screening date.

It’s important to note that the Copyright Act prohibits the circumvention of any technological protection measures that control access to works such as films on DVDs. This means we cannot use any of the programs that are widely available to rip a video file from a DVD in order to make the film available to a class.

The University Copyright Advisor office is happy to assist you with permissions clearance for your course materials.  If you would like some help, feel free to:

  • e-mail your course readings list or syllabus to copyright@uleth.ca, or
  • e-mail individual readings as you assign them throughout the semester to copyright@uleth.ca, or
  • provide me with temporary course access to enable a permissions assessment of copyrighted content in your Moodle course.

For each item or reading we will:

  • assess whether permission is needed;
  • determine whether needed permission is covered by an applicable license agreement or statutory user’s right;
  • cover the cost of pay-per-use licensing through the Library’s dedicated course materials licensing fund, when needed;
  • on request, format PDF scans of your selected book chapters for placement on Moodle or E-Reserve; and
  • provide you with a persistent link you can post in Moodle or distribute to students to ensure they can access items in the Library’s subscription databases without encountering publishers’ paywalls.

When you seek our assistance in assessing copyright/permissions for your course readings or content distributed in Moodle, on completion we will provide you with a permissions summary for all items assessed.  We are also happy to help you explore potential alternatives to expensive course textbooks for future courses. 

Please contact the Copyright Advisor office if you wish to book an appointment to discuss your needs in detail.  We are also happy to present on copyright to your class if students will be working on projects or assignments that require basic knowledge of copyright and permission issues or how to find and use copyright-compliant content.


Contact:

Rumi Graham, University Copyright Advisor | copyright@uleth.ca | ulethbridge.ca/copyright