Copyright for Faculty

Posting materials electronically on Blackboard or your web page

Faculty who are posting articles, readings, etc. from copyrighted material on Blackboard or faculty web pages should consider the following recommendations:

1. Use materials in the public domain freely
2. Use materials freely if you own the copyright (e.g., exams, syllabi, notes)
3. Whenever possible provide links to full text articles in the Library's databases or to other web sites instead of downloading them onto your own site.
4. If you do post copyrighted materials without securing permission, keep these online for one semester only and restrict access to this material to the students in your class. A bibliographic citation and notice of copyright should appear on the first page of each item.
5. When in doubt, seek permission.

• US Copyright Office
• Copyright Clearance Center

U.S. Copyright Office. (n.d.). Circular 21: Reproduction of copyrighted works by educators and librarians. Retrieved from

http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ21.pdf