Copyright and Licensed e-Resources
Most electronic resources (databases, e-journals, e-books) are made available through subscriptions handled by the Library. Access to City staff and students is allowed under the terms of licences drawn up by the supplier. Please take time to read these general guidelines to licensing for electronic resources.
All members of City University London are responsible for ensuring that they comply with licences. If you are in any doubt at all you must check the actual licence for any given resource. Alternatively for more information please contact Tamsin Thomas, Electronic Access Co-ordinator, tel: +44 (0)20 7040 5652.
As a general rule:
- You may not make multiple copies of any material
- You may not share any material with unauthorised users (for example, non-members of City University London)
- All use must be for non-commercial purposes, that is private use only, such as for research, teaching or study. Student placements and work-related projects may well constitute commercial use so licence terms must be checked in these circumstances.
- You must never disclose your password(s) for electronic resources
- You must not modify the text of any copyright material, nor any related copyright statement.
If you want to bring any licensed material (normally e-journals or e-books) to the attention of students or colleagues, we recommend that you link to it rather than e-mail it or add a full-text version to a network such as Moodle. There are instructions on how to do this on our page on Copyright and Moodle.
You should not make licensed material available to others over any kind of network or by e-mail without checking the terms of the licence concerned.
E-journals
As a guideline regarding electronic journals, you may print or download single copies of articles and database search results providing they are for your own personal use. You may also e-mail them to yourself. You must not systematically make copies of a whole issue of a journal.
E-books
Where e-books are concerned, there are generally no limits to the amount of text you may read or display on the screen, but you should not download, copy or print out more than 5% of the whole of the e-book. If you exceed this limit, you may find that e-book access is blocked, not only for you but also for your fellow students.