Introduction

With the introduction of the Electronic Reserves Collection, the Library updated all of its practices to ensure compliance with copyright laws. As part of this practice, we seek copyright permissions on behalf of the University for all copies of articles and chapters placed on reserve. Items are added to the Electronic Reserves Collection for a per-item processing fee, which helps to subsidize the costs of scanning, storage, and copyright and royalty fees.

Books and AV materials do not require copyright clearance, so they will continue to be processed free of charge. We will also continue to put old exams and lecture notes on reserve for free, if they are put on as paper copies. The standard fee will be charged for electronic versions.

The Electronic Reserves Collection provides remote access to supplementary course reading materials required in support of the Duke University Medical Center curriculum. Access to these materials is limited to authorized Duke users. Electronic reserve material is available from computers connected to the Duke network. For remote access options, connect to http://www.mclibrary.duke.edu/services/remoteaccess.html.

Note: Information stored in the Electronic Reserves Collection database is protected under the Copyright Laws of the United States (Title 17 U.S. Code) governing the act of reproducing copyrighted material. While the provisions of "fair use" apply, Electronic Reserves Collection users are liable for infringement of copyright law not covered by "fair use." More in-depth information on the laws governing intellectual property and fair use is available at http//www.mclibrary.duke.edu/pubsupport/copyright.

Submission Process

Requests for all photocopies to be placed on electronic reserve should be submitted from the Reserve Article/Chapter Request Form page or at the Library Service Desk if you are providing your own photocopies.

Since DUMCL may only provide reserve access to supplementary course reading materials, a course reading list detailing the required readings must be provided.

The Library scans reserve items and saves them as Portable Document Format (PDF) files. If you do not have the Acrobat Reader installed on your computer, please download and install it before attempting to view E-Reserves documents.

• For the fastest processing of your request(s), you may wish to provide your own photocopies. We will accept your photocopies if they comply with the following conditions:
  • clean, first generation copies of material with no black margin or center stripe
  • single-sided pages only
  • no holes
  • no staples
  • no partial articles or chapters
  • full citation to the published material clearly marked on the reverse of the first page, including author and title, as well as professor and course name/number

  These format requirements are necessary for photocopies to be transformed into PDF files for the Electronic Reserves Collection.

• Items will be placed on reserve within one week if we receive clean copies that meet the above conditions. If we need to make copies, it may take up to two weeks for an item to appear on reserve. Note: it may take longer for the Library to process requests at the beginning of the semester, so please submit your requests early.
• All photocopies of articles and book chapters will be placed on electronic reserve only unless prohibited by copyright restrictions. We will seek copyright permission for all chapters and articles when placing them on electronic reserve. If copyright permission is denied, the material will be withdrawn (i.e. removed from electronic access) immediately.
• If electronic permission is denied by the rightsholder, a paper copy can be placed on reserve in the Library if it has been noted on the Reserve Article/Chapter Request Form.
• If a faculty member already has permission for use, or owns the copyright to an item, a copyright compliance form will need to be signed showing evidence of copyright permission.
• We will accept and process all requests for permission, including requests for multiple items from a single source. However, we will only place one chapter per book and two articles per journal issue on reserve for a course, until the permissions for any other items from the same work have been received.

• Items longer than 20 pages may be loaded as separate reserve files.
• Items available in full text within Library databases will not be converted to PDF for electronic reserve. The full text articles from the Ovid databases will have direct links.

There is a non-refundable $5.00 fee per electronic reserve item (journal article, book chapter, exam, lecture notes), up to thirty pages in length. Each page over 30 will be charged at 10 cents per page. Additional royalty fees will be added if charged by the copyright holder. There will be no charge to place books, AVs, or print copies of exams or lecture notes on reserve. Reserve materials will be billed as requests are completed. Payment may be made by cash, check, or credit card.