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The Librarian’s Copyright Companion
the same material on separate occasions.” For digital content, check your license. If all staff are “authorized users,” everyone can access the content without intervention by the library.
Senate Example 3
Several branches of a library system agree that one branch will subscribe to particular journals in lieu of each branch purchasing its own subscriptions. The one subscribing branch will copy articles for users in any branch.
- Comment: This differs from the first example in that it involves a single library system that decides to reduce its number of subscriptions to the same title. Should transactions between libraries within a single library system be considered “interlibrary” transactions? We think the answer is yes. If the central library sends lots of copies to its branches—so many that the single subscription substitutes for subscriptions the branches really should have—the copying is systematic. As in Senate Example 1, consider lending the issue rather than making copies.
- Subscriptions to most periodicals subscribed to by city and county public libraries are not expensive. Do not be penny-wise and pound-foolish. Money saved by cancelling a subscription to a $50 magazine will be quickly eaten up by photocopying or shuttle costs. If a title is used frequently in each branch of a library system, you should have multiple subscriptions. You will make your users happy, and probably will save money in the long run.
- As for digital journals, the licensing agreement may make the content available to one library, to several libraries, or to all libraries in the system. Similarly, the content may be available to some, or all, of the library system’s users. Don’t plan on using section 108 or any other aspect of copyright law to get around the license agreement, because the license agreement overrides regular copyright rules. Whatever agreement you sign is what you will live by, so negotiate for broad access rights.
