Copyright

Best practice for full-length books:

• Ask Amherst Books to stock and sell the book to the students.  This is quite straightforward and raises no copyright concerns. 
• Ask the Hampshire Library to also purchase a copy of the book.
• Check the Directory of Open Access Books to see if there are titles available that you'd like to use for your course. 

To mitigate costs for students, also consider:

• Books for your course should be listed in your syllabus as early as possible, giving students time to consider their options and to plan.   
• A copy of the book(s) can be put on Reserve at the Hampshire College Library.  
• Ask us to purchase the e-book.  Not all books are available for library purchase in electronic format, but we will order if it is available in this format.  If we can get the e-book, you can then just link to the book from Moodle. 
• Consider whether there are low-cost or free alternatives among the growing body of Open Educational Resources.  Our Librarians can help you to look for OER alternatives, including the OER Commons.

Note that except in rare circumstances, scanning whole books would not pass a Fair Use test and is a serious copyright violation.

Accessibility Exception:  If you have a student in your class who is registered with the Office of AccessAbility Resources (OARS) and who has an alternative format accommodation, please email OARS.   

Articles from journals or chapters from books will generally be considered a small portion of the whole work and therefore are more likely to meet a Fair Use test, expanding the options for making them available to your students:

• Consider whether the materials are already accessible electronically from online services or databases (e.g. JSTOR, PsycArticles, etc.).   
• If you find electronic books in our Discover library catalog owned by the Hampshire Library or Five College Libraries, it's easy to download a chapter and link to in your Moodle course page.  
• Check the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)  to see if you can relevant materials available here to link to in your Moodle page. 
• Scan what you need (or ask a TA to help you) and post it to Moodle.  On the up side, this offers full control and therefore more flexibility/spontaneity in assigning or changing readings. It also offers your students quick and easy access. You, however, are responsible for managing copyright.  Scanning a large portion of a work is problematic even if access is restricted through Moodle.  See our pages on Fair Use and The Four Factors Explained and How to Assess if You are Using Materials Legally.

If you need a large portion of a book that Hampshire Library does not own electronically, please:

• Ask us to purchase the e-book.  See our Course Reserves page for more information on the process.  It is not always possible for libraries to acquire the text you want electronically, but we will try.  If we can get the e-book, you can then just link to the material from Moodle and there will be no further copyright concerns.
• Seek permission for scanning from the copyright holder.

Interlibrary Loan:  Please note that PDFs received through Interlibrary Loan are meant only for personal study, scholarship, or research needs and may not be further distributed.  If you need an article or book chapter for a course reading, please Place a Course Reserve.