Answered By: Gabe Gossett
Last Updated: Apr 21, 2023     Views: 231

Librarians are happy to provide advice and support in determining what can be used within a class site and how it can be used. The easiest way to get any material added to your course is to place a course reserves request and we will do the fair use determinations and copyright clearance for you.

There are four types of sources where fair use and copyright measures are not needed:

  1. Any source in the public domain. These are typically older materials or material where copyrights were not renewed.
  2. U.S. government publications: not copyrighted unless they say so.  (Some governments - like Canada and the UK - do copyright their publications.)
  3. Creative Commons licensed content: typically the author(s) have retained some rights but the content may be reused for educational purposes.
  4. Open access content: most open access content is under copyright but is free to link to, and in some cases to reproduce.

For questions about copyright, please see the copyright guide or contact a librarian.