Staff

Where copies are made for the purpose of education, as well as sometimes for research, University staff will generally be subject to the same guidelines as instructors and faculty – see For Instructors.

You may also be able to make use of the University’s Fair dealing guidelines when making and communicating copies of short excerpts of copyright-protected works for administrative purposes within the University. These guidelines, as they apply to administrative copying, are explained in greater detail below.

There are a number of exceptions included in the Copyright Act which pertain directly to libraries, with which librarians and other library staff should be familiar. The most important of these are:

• S. 30.1 – Management and maintenance of materials in the permanent collection:
  • Allows copying (a) rare or unpublished originals; (b) fragile originals; (c) into an alternative format; (d) for record keeping and cataloguing; (e) for insurance and police investigations; or (f) for restoration. Note: making a copy is not permitted for activities (a), (b) and (c) if the work is “commercially available” at a reasonable price, which includes availability under a licence in this case
• S. 30.2 – Research or private study:
  • A library is allowed to apply fair dealing for a patron as long as that patron would have had the right to do it directly him or herself

For information on inter-library loans, contact the ILL Service. 

The Fair dealing guidelines permit the communication and reproduction of a short excerpt from a copyright-protected work in the circumstances described. Section 4 of the guidelines defines a short excerpt as follows:

A short excerpt is generally interpreted as (though not limited to, and may vary depending on the factors outlined in the guidelines – please contact the Copyright Office for assistance):

1. approximately 10% of a copyright-protected work (including a literary work, musical score, sound recording, and an audiovisual work)
2. a chapter from a book
3. an article from a periodical
4. an entire artistic work (including a painting, print, photograph, diagram, drawing, map, chart, and plan) from a copyright-protected work containing other artistic works
5. an entire newspaper article or page
6. an entire poem or musical score from a copyright-protected work containing other poems or musical scores
7. an entire entry from an encyclopedia, annotated bibliography, dictionary or similar reference work

provided that in each case, no more of the work is copied than is required in order to achieve the allowable purpose.

When making copies under fair dealing, and for administrative purposes, you are encouraged to respect the following principles:

• Copies of the short excerpt of a copyright-protected work are only provided to faculty members, administrative staff and students enrolled in the university who require the copies for the educational purpose for which it was made.

• If a copy of a short excerpt of a copyright-protected work is made available electronically on a server or other device, the server or other device must be secure (e.g. password protected) and the copy must be accessible only by the persons referred to in the previous bullet.

It is permissible to copy a short excerpt of a copyright-protected work to carry out administrative duties, provided that the purpose of the copying is directly tied to the education of students. However, making such copies for reasons purely related to the governance or administration of the University does not fall under fair dealing.

If a copyright-protected extract to be used in a course exceeds the limitations of a short excerpt as set out in the Fair dealing guidelines, and does not fall under another applicable exception, transactional permission for making the copies should be secured from the copyright holder or from the holder’s licensing agent. For this, contact the Copyright Office.

In addition, you may communicate or reproduce copyright-protected works for which the University has a licence with the publisher or provider, as long as the terms of the licence permit such use. This can be verified using the Library catalogue – see Using electronic resources. Any copying and/or distribution restrictions contained in the licence should be respected, and seen as taking precedence over the Fair dealing guidelines.