Photocopying

You may photocopy a limited amount of published material for yourself, unless you are doing commercial research. This is called fair dealing.

A library is permitted to copy and supply an article from a journal issue or a chapter from a book held in its stock, to a user from another library for private study or non-commercial research. This is referred to as document supply or interlibrary loan.

The library must have received a copyright declaration that has been personally signed by the requester before the copy can be passed on. Electronic signatures, although valid for some transactions, are not acceptable as a personal signature on a copyright declaration, as defined in Schedule 10 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

The University holds a licence from the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) which permits staff and students to make multiple (or systematic) copies for teaching and learning from books, periodicals and other materials in the CLA repertoire held in the University's collections. The Licence is negotiated with CLA on behalf of the Higher Education sector by representatives from Universities UK and Guild HE. The current licence agreement runs from 1 August 2013 to 31 July 2016.

Content from many books, journals and some magazines are licensed for use in printed course packs under the Licence, subject to terms and exclusions. Printed course packs should not be circulated electronically - special terms apply to digital readings and prior authorisation is required. 

Most print stock will be covered by the licence, however users should check, prior to copying, that the material being copied is not excluded from the Licence. The licensed repertoire is subject to change: rightsholders may add or withdraw content at any time. CLA notifies the University's Copyright Officer monthly of any changes to the repertoire.

CLA provides a Check Permissions tool, which can be used to quickly check whether a work can be used under the Licence in a printed course pack, selecting 'Photocopying' as the usage type. If you wish to use material from an e-book or e-journal University subscription in a printed course pack or handout, you should also select 'Photocopying.' Lists of excluded works and categories by territory are also published on the CLA website.

Lecturers' personally owned copies of textbooks or journals, inspection or proof copies of published material, or photocopies made or obtained via interlibrary loan for private use are not licensed for further copying under the CLA Licence.

The CLA Licence, User Guidelines and other support material including lists of excluded works and categories are available on CLA's Higher Education microsite. Information on scanning, digital readings, Blackboard Learn, and other types of materials can be found using the links on this page.

The University's licence with the Copyright Licensing Agency enables the institution to make multiple copies from print materials within the CLA's repertoire for educational purposes.

Not all material in print is covered under this licence. Some categories of material are excluded, including printed music, maps, and privately owned documents. There are also excluded publications for which copying rights must be negotiated directly with the rights owner. CLA maintains a list of excluded categories and excluded works on their website.

Other licences or copyright exceptions may apply to some excluded works, so if the material you wish to use isn't covered, please ask us for advice.

The licence allows Brunel staff to make photocopies of journal articles and book chapters for each student in a particular class (plus one for the teacher). The readings can also be put together to form a course pack for no extra charge. Under the Licence staff may copy:

• up to 5% or one complete chapter (whichever is the greater) from a book
• up to 5% or one whole article (whichever is the greater) from a single issue of a journal
• up to 5% or one paper (whichever is the greater) from a set of conference proceedings
• up to 5% of an anthology of short stories or poems or one short story or one poem of not more than 10 pages (whichever is the greater)
• up to 5% or one single case (whichever is the greater) from a published report of judicial proceedings

The CLA Licence also permits scanning of extracts from UK published print material for use in the VLE.

This means that electronic course packs can be made and linked to course materials within the VLE, which can then be downloaded onto CD-ROM or other digital storage media by students. The copying limits are the same as for copying from paper to paper mentioned above and apply per module.

Material already in digital format cannot be used under this licence. For instance, if the Library owned both a print and electronic version of a journal article, the electronic version cannot be placed in the VLE under the licence which only covers scanning from print materials. Additionally, the reason why the print version has been scanned when an electronic version is available must be reported to the Copyright Licensing Agency. Some electronic material may be covered separately for use in the VLE - check the terms and conditions for individual subscriptions and websites.

In order to comply with the terms of the licence, new procedures for adding copyright material to the VLE now apply. Any member of Brunel staff may carry out scanning, but prior authorisation must be obtained from the Copyright and Digital Resources Officer. See the web page on scanning for further information on requirements.

• Scanning for use in the VLE
• Copyright Licensing Agency website

Copying from newspapers

The University also has a licence from the Newspaper Licensing Agency which allows multiple copying of cuttings from newspapers for teaching. It also allows the inclusion of photocopies from newspapers in course packs for students. UK national newspapers included in the Licence are indicated on the Newspaper Licensing Agency website. Brunel's agreement includes copying from the Hounslow Borough Chronicle, Hounslow Guardian, Richmond and Twickenham Times, Uxbridge Gazette and Uxbridge Times.

• Newspaper Licensing Agency website