About the Library

One of the core tenets of the University Library’s mission is the provision of information resources to foster student success, scholarly research, and academic excellence. In doing so it is our policy to provide resources while protecting intellectual property rights and adhering to the the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U. S. Code, Sections 101-122).

Fair Use

U.S. Code Title 17 provides legal definitions on reproducing, sharing, and using copyrighted materials. Section 107 of this law allows for the "fair use" of materials, including reproduction for "purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching ..., scholarship, or research."
This does not mean, however, that faculty or the library can make everything available for free. There are four factors that determine the degree to which usage of material can be considered "fair":

• The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes.
• The nature of the copyrighted work.
• The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole.
• The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

Library users are responsible for ensuring that their use and reproduction of library materials constitutes fair use.

Downloading Electronic Materials

The University Library purchases electronic resources (articles, eBooks, data, etc.) for use by students, faculty, and staff. The terms of use for these resources is stipulated in the purchase contract (license) between the library and individual resource vendors. Library users are responsible for following database terms of service agreements when downloading content. This includes printing materials, saving files to a device or cloud storage, or sending material by electronic mail.

Reserves

The Dominguez Hills library follows the guidelines established for e-reserves in 1996 at the Conference for Fair Use (CONFU).

• Short items (30 pages or fewer):
  • A single article from a single issue of a journal.
  • A single poem, short story, or essay from a collection of the same.
  • A single chapter from a book.
  • A single illustration, chart, graph, or diagram from a work.
• Longer items (longer than 30 pages):
  • An excerpt not to exceed 30 pages or 10% of the total work, whichever is smaller.
• In addition to length limits, an item does not qualify for fair use if:
  • It is being used for more than one semester.
  • It is being used for multiple courses in the same semester.
  • The library or faculty member does not own a lawfully obtained copy.
  • The items placed on reserve make up a large proportion of the total assigned reading for the course. Multiple copies of the item are requested.

Interlibrary Loan Requests

The University Library reserves the right to refuse to accept a copying order if, in its judgment, fulfillment of the order would involve violation of copyright law.