Copyright Clearance

The Copyright Clearance Unit, based in the Library, is a support service for academics wishing to give students access to material covered by copyright.

Teaching staff can request extracts sourced from printed books and journals, and the Unit will process and digitise under the licences subscribed to by the University, or seek permission if necessary. The requests will, if possible, be scanned as PDF documents and made available for teaching staff to link to the relevant module on Blackboard.

Although requests are processed as fast as possible, at times of peak demand some delay is to be expected, so it is advised that requests be sent as soon as is feasible and not later than eight weeks prior to the start of the module. Requests are dealt with in order of receipt in order to maintain a fair system.

Departments will not be charged for items scanned under the CLA Licence or, usually, material obtained as a copyright fee paid copy from the British Library.

Guidelines

• Requests are limited to 30 requests for 20 credit modules, and up to 55 for 40 credit module.
• Copyright cleared resources are only to be made available for the duration of the module in question and can only be accessible to students registered on that module.
• Scanned articles should not be used to as a substitute for the purchase of textbooks. The CLA has produced a Good Practice Guide on creating course packs. All copyright cleared request musts be on the reading list and must make up no more than 25% of the overall reading lists, i.e. 12 copyright requests would require at least 48 readings, 24 requests would require at least 98 readings.
• Copyright cleared documents must then remain on the LEI managed server; they cannot be copied onto any other platform such as Blackboard or edited in any way.

Notes

• The CLA Licence does not cover all printed works and there are restrictions. Certain authors, publishers and particular categories of printed works such as maps and musical scores are exempt.
• The CLA licence only applies to material being scanned for teaching purposes and does not permit the posting of scanned copies to a repository, website or similar. For more information, please see the CLA page.
• The CLA have stringent auditing procedures and the Copyright Clearance Unit is responsible at the end of the academic year for reporting details of what is scanned under the licence to the CLA.
• The CLA have the right to inspect the relevant University VLE.

Step-By Step Process:

1. Fill in Copyright Clearance Request Form (Found below). Please ensure you fill the form in to the best of your ability, as the need to clarify these details by the Copyright Unit will slow down your request.
2. Request is received from Academic and checked against Aspire or reading list supplied by Academic.
3. Requests will be checked for compliance with the CLA Licence. Some material and certain publishers are exempt from the CLA Licence (see CLA page for further details) and will require permission from the copyright holder.
4. If item is within stock and falls within the remit of the CLA Licence, it will be scanned by the Unit and uploaded to the Copyright Cleared Resources page, from which you can link to Blackboard.
5. If the item is not in stock, the request will be sent to the British Library for a copyright fee paid copy. Once this has been received the PDF file will be uploaded to the Copyright Cleared Resources page, from which you can link to Blackboard.
6. Tutors will be informed when their requested resources have been uploaded to the Copyright Cleared Resources page.
7. Resources can only be made available for the duration of the module and only for the students registered on that module. At the end of each academic year, the Academic in question, who will be asked to confirm whether they still require the items previously used.

Copyright Clearance Form (48k)