Library-Licensed Electronic Resources

General Information

Penrose Library provides licensed electronic resources in support of the College’s commitment to provide an excellent, well-rounded liberal arts and sciences undergraduate education. In many cases, license agreements impose greater restrictions on use than does copyright law. Users of library-licensed resources must comply with the terms of agreements, as well as the campus-wide policy on Acceptable Use of Information Technology.

Users should be aware that publishers and/or vendors may monitor use of electronic resources to ensure compliance with licensing agreements. Breach of license may enable the publisher or vendor to turn off the College’s access without warning. Therefore, users must make reasonable and good faith efforts to comply with license terms in order to help ensure access to electronic resources for the entire College community.

Authorized Users

In general, authorized users of electronic resources licensed for Whitman College are defined as:

• Currently enrolled Whitman College campus student and currently employed faculty and staff members, who are entitled to on-site and remote access; and
• Members of the public, who are entitled to on-site access only (i.e., within Penrose Library).

User Responsibilities

Users of licensed resources must comply with the terms of agreements. In doing so, they are expected to:

• Familiarize themselves with license terms associated with specific resources, presented at the time of access;
• Limit use to non-commercial, educational, or personal research purposes;
• Not facilitate unauthorized access by others (i.e., do not share their Whitman Internet account password);
• Not engage in large-scale systematic downloading of licensed content (e.g., download entire issues of electronic journals or large-scale downloading from bibliographic files to create large databases);
• Not further distribute copies of materials to individuals or groups outside the Whitman community, unless the license for the resource specifically allows it;
• Not share client software used to search licensed resources with individuals or groups outside the Whitman community;
• Give proper attribution when quoting from material.

Note: Not all licenses allow downloading and posting of articles (or other available works) from electronic resources for use in CLEo or electronic course reserves. It is advisable to consult with a librarian before using licensed electronic resources for such purposes. In general, it is preferable to link to articles (via an appropriate authentication mechanism) rather than to download and post articles to a server.

Library Responsibilities

In providing licensed electronic resources, the Library shall:

• Whenever possible, enter only into agreements that allow access to and use information that fully support the College mission;
• Enter into agreements that ensure user privacy;
• Allow access only to authorized users;
• Make reasonable and good faith efforts to inform authorized users of their rights and responsibilities under license agreements; and
• Upon becoming aware of any breach of a license agreement, take reasonable measure to correct the breach and to prevent the breach from occurring again.

11/08
Adapted from University of Minnesota Libraries
Copyright Standards
http://www.lib.umn.edu/copyright/licensed-std.pdf