Scanning Guidelines

The University of Bristol holds a Photocopying and Scanning Licence with the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA), which permits staff and students, in certain circumstances, to make multiple photocopies and scan extracts from printed books and printed journals. The purpose of the Licence is to enable the University to pay creators of certain copyright material fairly for the use of that material.

Scanning - general overview

In very general terms, the licence allows certain trained individuals ('Designated Persons') to scan certain items ('Digital Copies') only for the purposes of a Course of Study. A Course of Study is defined as any whole course of study or any segment of a student's studies which is normally regarded as a discrete and self-contained unit for the purposes of examination or assessment or, in the case of a non-credit bearing course, that particular course. Under the licence, Designated Persons are entitled to place the Digital Copies on the Course Collection for that Course of Study (this is a secure network for a particular Course of Study e.g. Blackboard), and also to retain a copy on the secure network for back-up purposes. The licence also enables course users to access the Course Collection, to download a Digital Copy, to print it out, and to retain an electronic copy of it for the duration of the Course of Study for which it had been provided. It is a condition of the licence that each Digital Copy created under the licence has appended a copyright notice in the prescribed form. It is a further requirement that the University records and reports to the CLA bibliographic and other details of scanned material.

The licence sets out strict requirements that must be met - please see below for further information.

Note: digital copying of electronic books and journals is not affected by the Licence.  The terms and conditions applying to the use of electronic journals are set out either in direct agreements between the University and publishers or with groups of publishers through agreements such as the JISC Ebooks Agreement and the National Electronic Site Licence Initiate (NESLI).  For more information please see the Information Services website:

http://www.bris.ac.uk/is/library/ejhelpco.html

http://www.bris.ac.uk/is/library/selectedresources/copyright.html

People authorised to scan

Only Designated Persons are authorised to scan/make digital copies and only then for limited purposes and subject to the terms of the Licence. However, if the written consent of the copyright owner to make the digital copy is obtained, this will override any prohibition under the licence.

Designated Persons can find more detailed information about their responsibilities under the licence in the Designated Persons Manual.

Any changes to the list of Designated Persons can only be made with the prior written authority of the Deputy University Secretary.

Material that may be scanned

With the exception of Excluded Material (see below), the licence permits the scanning of pages of original published editions of books, looseleaf works, law reports, periodicals and journals provided the material is published in the printed form in the UK or in the USA. Note that, under the previous CLA licence, only work printed in the UK was permitted to be scanned. The list (comprising the UK and the USA at the time of writing) may be amended by the CLA at any time, and any such amendment will be posted on the CLA's website.

Excluded material - the CLA licence expressly prohibits the scanning of the following:

The material to be scanned must be sourced from original books, journals and magazines either owned by the University of Bristol or are copies supplied on a copyright fee-paid basis.  The British Library Document Supply Centre (BLDSC) is the main UK supplier of copyright fee paid copies.

The CLA licence requires many conditions to be fulfilled when scanning under the licence, and these requirements are set out in the Designated Persons Manual.

Please do not ask a Designated Person to scan materials which you know are not licensed for scanning.

Limits on scanning

The proportion of a work that may be scanned is subject to the same extent limits as applying to the photocopying of extracts - i.e. it must not, during any one Course of Study (this is defined as any whole course of study or any segment of a student's studies which is normally regarded as a discrete and self-contained unit for the purposes of examination or assessment or, in the case of a non-credit bearing course, that particular course), exceed either singly or in aggregate:

The greater of 5% of any published edition; OR

These volume limits are an aggregate for scanning and photocopying. No systematic or repeated copying beyond this limit is allowed.

Priority must be given to electronic versions

Reasonable endeavours must be made to identify whether the University subscribes to a digital version of the work that is required to be scanned, which is technically suitable for the purpose for which it is needed. If the University does subscribe to a digital version and if there is a licence in place that permits the making of multiple copies for students, that digital version must be used instead of creating a Digital Copy by scanning.

If the University does not subscribe to a digital version of the work, and if an electronic equivalent of a printed book or journal is commercially available but you (or the Designated Person) choose not to acquire it and instead make or obtain a digital copy from a printed source, the Designated Person must record on the Digital Copy Record Sheet why scanning was the preferred option.

Distribution and access to scanned copies

The activities permitted under the licence are with a view to each student on a course of study (and the course tutors) being supplied with one copy each.

To ensure that digital copies can only be accessed, for the purpose of downloading or printing out, by those students on a Course of Study for whom the digital copy has been created, the University is required to place digital copies into course based collections.  The University is required to apply strict procedures for secure authentication (by some combination of user name, password and which identification of the user's status as being a staff or student member, a Designated Person or a Course User) to make sure that a digital copy created under the Licence is limited to the enrolled students.

Accordingly digital copies cannot be stored in "open" resources such as a University-wide, Department or subject repository, an electronic reserve or digital library where delivery across course boundaries is enabled.  However the course collection framework does permit:

Accessing scanned copies

Digital copies stored in course collections may be downloaded and printed out (once only) by the following course users:

However, students and staff may view (but not download or print out) digital copies (for example where one student is considering transferring to another Course of Study and may wish to view the course material).

It should also be noted that the licence does not cover staff employed by the NHS based at the University's premises.

Online reading lists

Digital copies can be cited on an on-line reading list organised by reference to a Course of Study but should not be indexed or listed in a general library catalogue.  Hyperlinks can be used to enable staff and students to browse a list of entries in an on-line reading list and link seamlessly from the citation to the digital copy.  However the processes of browsing, hyperlinking and viewing a digital copy should not facilitate a digital copy being downloaded and printed out by anyone other than a course user.

Can digital copies be made available on the Internet or on the University's Intranet?

Digital copies must not under any circumstances be made available on the publicly accessible Internet.  However, remote networked access to digital copies stored on course collections can be enabled via the Internet provided that the technical means of access is by a process of secure authentication that excludes anyone other than a course user.  Please refer to the Designated Persons' Manual for the meaning of secure authentication and how the University uses secure networks to maintain control of digital copies.

Distributing scanned copies on CD Roms

The University is permitted by the Licence to distribute digital copies created under licence on CD ROMS (and other transportable storage media) provided that one copy only is delivered only to the enrolled students on the Course of Study for which it is prepared.  Remember, only Designated Persons are permitted to make digital copies which are then put on to CD ROMS.

Emailing scanned material

Designated Persons can deliver Digital Copies to students enrolled on a particular programme (and their course tutor) by means of an attachment to an email. Also, a Course User may email a downloaded digital copy to his or her own email account.

Retyping scanned material

The retyping of printed text into machine readable form is not licensed and must be avoided.

Displaying scanned material using presentation software

The basic permission for digital copies to be viewed by staff and students on a Course of Study permits the display of digital copies using standard presentation software packages such as MS Powerpoint and magnification and projection on a screen for the purpose of illustrating a lecture or tutorial.  Remember that only Designated Persons are permitted to make digital copies which are then provided to staff and students for this purpose. Only the cohort of students on a particular Course of Study (and their lecturers) are permitted to be in attendance during the viewing of the presentation software.

Housekeeping

The University is required to apply weeding procedures designed to ensure that digital copies added to any course collection are routinely removed as soon as the teaching, examination and/or assessment of an individual unit or Course of Study is completed unless the same course is likely to be taught in the next term/semester or academic year.  Designated Persons are required to approach Course Administrators at least annually to discuss whether the digital copies should be removed from the course collection.

Administration requirements

Designated Persons are required to comply and monitor compliance with various administration requirements (see the Designated Persons' Manual).  Whenever staff request a Designated Person to make a digital copy they will be asked for certain information required for record keeping and monitoring purposes.  Designated Persons are not authorised to make digital copies unless they are in a position to comply with these administrative requirements.  A copyright notice in the prescribed form must be attached to each item of scanned material.  The Designated Person will do this at the time of scanning and it must not be omitted when scanned material is used.  The only exception to this is that an abridged notice will be permitted when digital copies are displayed using presentation software. The abridged notice should state "Copied under CLA Licence - please refer to the full Copyright Notice." This is, of course, subject to the full Copyright Notice being added elsewhere.

Why comply with the Licence?

Without the Licence any scanning of copyright material now covered by the Licence would have been a breach of copyright actionable by the copyright owner, normally by making a claim for damages.

The University believes the Licence represents a fair and proper way of paying copyright owners for the use of their copyright material. 

The CLA has the right to police the Licence by carrying out compliance audits.  The Licence (including the photocopying licence) could be withdrawn for non-compliance.  The University could also be sued.

Accordingly it is a disciplinary offence deliberately to ignore or flout the Licence.  If you are in doubt about your right to scan material please contact the Designated Person in your Department.

For further information please contact:
Scanning enquiries:  Designated Person
Licence or legal/copyright enquiries: Clare Smith, Senior University Lawyer (0117 928 8916 or Clare.Smith@bristol.ac.uk)