[ILL-L] Textbooks - Policy Statements

[Joe Ellison]

There is nothing in copyright law, fair use or otherwise, that precludes
interlibrary borrowing of any particular type of book. It may sound good,
but if you say it, I'm betting some student will actually read the copyright
law and find that it isn't so. Once they've caught you in that
misrepresentation, they won't trust anything else you tell them, including
the real restrictions placed by copyright law, or the factual "their loan
period doesn't match our class term" or "there aren't enough copies in the
country for every student to request one through ILL, so we just don't do
it".

 

Joe Ellison

Document Delivery and Digital Initiatives Assistant

Transportation Library, Northwestern Univ Library (OCLC = JCR)

1970 Campus Dr, Evanston, IL 60208-2300

voice: 847-491-8600, fax: 847-491-8601

j-ellison at northwestern.edu

http://www.library.northwestern.edu/transportation/

 

From: ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org]
On Behalf Of Miller, Jennifer
Sent: Friday, May 29, 2009 11:46 AM
To: ill-l at webjunction.org
Subject: [ILL-L] Textbooks - Policy Statements

 

I know the issue of textbooks has come up before, but I have a specific
question that I can't find in previous discussions. After a bad experience
last semester, I want to amend our policy from "we'll request anything" to
"we won't request your required textbooks." I have reviewed many policy
statements of libraries which do not request textbooks; these range from
basically 'forget it' to lengthy justifications citing the difficulty in
obtaining, too-short lending periods, etc. I also found just a few which
state specifically that such requests are a *violation of the Fair Use
clause of the US copyright law*. I like the authority of this, as it would
allow us to say that it's not us just being mean - it's The Law.  But is
this true?  I would greatly appreciate any insight on this! 

Jennifer G. Miller - Reference/Interlibrary Loan Librarian
Middlesex County College Library/2600 Woodbridge Avenue/Edison, New Jersey
08818











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