Reserve Materials Policies

Instructors may use the Libraries Course Reserves service to make supplemental readings and other materials available to their students. Reserves can be made available online, at the Coe Library Help Desk, or Brinkerhoff Geology Library. Use our Reserve Request Form to submit materials to be processed.

Course Reserve Policies

Submission requirements:

Standard bibliographic citations.
Two weeks' advance notice (at the beginning of the semester).
Permission release form attached to any original student work.
Request only the amount of material needed to accomplish the educational purpose (less than 80 items/course).

Additional Information:

Submissions may be declined if they to not meet Fair Use requirements.
UW Libraries materials will be considered for partial reproductions or purchased in electronic formats, when possible.
Interlibrary Loan & Prospector materials, course packs and consumable materials may not be placed on reserve.

Materials may be reproduced and made available for course reserves when they are in public domain; or:

used with permission from the copyright holder; or
used under the provisions of a contract or license agreement, noting that the agreements may differ from, and often take precedence over, what is allowed under copyright law; or
used under the provision of Fair Use, U.S. Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. Section 107, as outlined or as determined using a case-by-case four-factor analysis.
For more information, see our Copyright information and FAQs below.

By proceeding to the Reserve Request form, you agree that all items submitted for reserve are in compliance with U.S. copyright laws and the University of Wyoming Libraries Reserve Policies. The Libraries retains the right to refuse materials for reserve or remove materials already on reserve, on the basis of law-related or administrative concerns.

Reserve Request Form

Copyright & Fair Use Information

Copyright Notice

The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted materials. Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction. One of these specified conditions is that the photocopy or reproduction is not to be "used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research." If a user makes a request for, or later uses, a photocopy or reproduction for purposes in excess of "fair use," that user may be liable for copyright infringement. For more information beyond our FAQ, please see our Copyright Law Guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

Class notes and quizzes, student papers (by permission), links to websites or links to materials available through the Libraries electronic subscriptions, small photocopied portions of copyrighted works, and any photocopied portion of items in the public domain may be placed on either traditional or electronic reserve.

Traditional reserves can also include Libraries owned books and media and instructor-owned books, journals, and media (must be original copies).

Items not eligible for reserve include Libraries-owned journals and non-circulating items; items borrowed through Interlibrary Loan, Prospector, or from another library via other means; complete or excessive reproductions of copyrighted materials, course packs, and consumable materials.

Reserve policies are based on the Fair Use provisions defined in the United States Copyright Act of 1976 along with the American Library Association and Association of College and Research Libraries guidelines.

Consult the Libraries Copyright Law guide for more information.

Fair Use allows limited use of material without the copyright owner's permission. These limitations affect the amount, the period of time, and the circumstances under which the copyrighted material may be used. The fact that the material is being used for educational purposes does not make it exempt from Fair Use limitations.

Fair Use is defined in Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976:

Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include—

(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;
(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors.

In addition to Fair Use guidelines, Libraries policy generally allows for the use of:

One article per issue of a journal or newspaper
One graph, table, photo, or illustration per issue of a journal or newspaper
Up to 20% of a book or similar copyrighted work

Items available through the Libraries' electronic subscriptions are governed by vendor license agreements and may allow for a larger amount of material to be used.

Instructors are responsible for securing permission or clearance to use materials in excess of the Libraries policies.

Consult the Libraries Copyright Law guide for more information.

No. Materials collected in course packs have received permission of use from the copyright holder with the cost being passed on to the student. Fair Use requires that we take into account the "effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work". Placing course packs on Reserve would adversely affect the cost paid to legally use the copyrighted items.

No. Materials collected in course packs have received permission of use from the copyright holder with the cost being passed on to the student. Fair Use requires that we take into account the "effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work". Placing course No. Consumable materials, including standardized tests, workbooks, and exercises, affect the potential market for or value of a copyrighted work. Placing consumable materials on reserve would adversely affect the cost paid to consume the item.

No. Unless the material is within the public domain, it is still copyrighted and governed by Fair Use. Simply being out-of-print does not necessarily make an item part of the public domain. Currently, the public domain includes items published prior to 1923 or where the copyright has expired, items which the author has explicitly placed in the public domain, and items published by the U.S. Federal Government.

No. Copyrighted material should not be routinely used for the same class without copyright permission or clearance.

A Copyright Notice is a reminder that the copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies and other reproductions of copyrighted materials. The Libraries are authorized to provide duplicate copies of materials for private study, scholarship, and research only. If a user requests or utilizes a reproduction for purposes in excess of these restrictions that user may be held accountable for copyright infringement.

Reserve Materials Policies

Frequently Asked Questions

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