A centralised service for scanning & digital storage of required material. for delivery to a specific cohort of students enrolled in a course of study. The Library carries this out on behalf of academic staff in accordance with the CLA licence.
Under the terms of the Copyright Licencing Agency (CLA) Photocopying and Scanning Higher Education Licence, the University has permission to make digital copies of limited extracts from electronic and printed books, journals and magazines that may be stored for delivery to a specific cohort of students enrolled in a course of study.
The Licence stipulates that the preparation of digital material should be carried out by individuals trained to undertake this work and library staff are approved to do this on behalf of academic staff. A centralised service is in place to allow teaching staff to pass details of required material for scanning purposes to their subject librarian.
This service not only helps ensure that the University complies with the Licence requirements but also helps academic staff make teaching material more readily available to students. Note that, to best facilitate access and control, the scanned material is made available via the appropriate module reading list on Blackboard Learn.
A current copy of the University's Copyright Policy (2016/17) is available.
Limits on what can be scanned
The material requested for scanning must be covered by the CLA's Licence. The licence limits the scanning of copyright material in the following ways:
- The book or journal issue MUST be owned by the University ie. the Library or a member of academic staff must have purchased a copy from University funds. This can include a copyright fee paid copy of a chapter or article supplied by the British Library - our Document Delivery Service can arrange this through the relevant subject librarian
- It MUST have been published in the UK or one of the other 38 countries where there is a copyright mandate and not published by a publisher not covered by the Licence
- Access to the scanned material MUST be restricted to the students taking the module concerned and the staff who teach them. Items may only be made available for the duration of the module and it is for this reason that the scanned items are made available through a module reading list held on Blackboard Learn. Note, too, that the University is required to maintain accurate records of all material scanned under the terms of the Licence for CLA auditing purposes.
- All scanned material MUST include a CLA cover sheet which indicates that the item has been scanned in accordance with the terms of the Licence - Library copies of scanned material will automatically include this cover sheet
- Furthermore, the proportion of a work that can be copied consists of whichever is the greater of 10% or:
- one complete chapter of a book
- one article from a journal issue
- one paper of one set of conference proceedings
- one report of a single case from a report of judicial proceedings
- one short story or poem of not more than 10 pages in an anthology of short stories or poems
- Note that the Licence also now covers the making of digital copies from digital material (such as e-books and e-journals). Academic staff may normally include weblinks in bibliographic lists of electronic resources in their Blackboard Learn modules so long as the resources are provided through the Library or freely available on the Internet.
Submitting requests for scanning
Scanning Requests: simple decision flow chart
On receiving a request from a member of teaching staff, a scanning request form needs to be completed for each digital copy and for every semester that the digital copy is required. Your subject librarian can complete this form once the details of the scanned item(s) have been forwarded. These scans will be automatically renewed at the end of the academic year unless notified to withdraw them from the relevant reading lists.
On receiving the request for scanning, the subject librarian will
- check the request to ensure that it is covered by the Licence and get back to you if there are any problems or if further information is needed
- check that the Library owns (or can purchase) a copy of the material
- retrieve the item(s) from stock - or purchase a copy, if necessary
- arrange for the item(s) to be scanned and converted to PDF format
- arrange for the item to be loaded onto the CLA's cloud-based Digital Content Store and notify the academic that the item is now available on Blackboard Learn through the appropriate module reading list
Details needed for scanning requests:
- module name and number
- number of students taking the module
- start and end date of the module
- full bibliographic details of the book chapter or journal article
Turnaround time for requests
The Library will scan material on a first-come, first-served basis. We will try to make the scanned copy available as soon as possible after receipt of the request but we would ask that academic staff allow at least 1 week before the item is required. Waiting times will be affected by the volume of requests received and will be dependent on the time of year - the period before the start of each semester tends to be particularly busy with scanning requests. Note, also, that processing times will be longer if the item to be scanned is not held in Library stock.
Second Extract Service
Academic staff who would like material scanned which exceeds the current extent limits of the Licence (eg. a second chapter from a book or second journal article) should contact their subject librarian to find out whether the Second Extract Service is available to them.
This particular service can be expensive to use as copyright clearance is given by the Copyright Licencing Agency on behalf of publishers who have signed up for this service and costs are usually based on a 'per student, per page' price model. For this reason, the Second Extract Service is only available to support distance learning modules. Requests for material through this service must be made in advance (at least 1 weeks notice) of the start of the module concerned.
Comments and further information
For further information, or to pass on any comments on the Library's scanning service, please contact a member of your subject library team.