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Copyright and library activities

The Library encounters copyright in many ways

Readings and Reserve

Monash Library's Readings and Reserve service provides the central point for Monash staff seeking to digitise and put online, in reliance on Part VB 'CAL' licence, any TEXT excerpts from published works.

Content included in the Library's Readings and Reserve collection adheres to the limitations imposed by the Part VB CAL licence in relation to the online communication of published text works:

  • Published books: 10% of the total number of pages or one whole chapter (whichever is greater)
  • Musical notation: 10% of the number of bars
  • Journals or newspaper articles: one article per issue of a journal can be digitised, or more than one, if on the same specific topic (and excepting articles accessed from restrictive electronic journal databases)

The Digitisation unit and Readings and Reserve ensures that

  1. the Part VB copyright warning notice is applied to each item communicated and
  2. the University-wide limitation on electronic communications (as made by the Library) from the same source work is respected.

Note that the VB 'CAL' licence only applies to PUBLISHED works not unpublished text or images. (Readings and Reserve may make unpublished works available online if permission is obtained from the author/copyright owner).

Journals or newspaper articles accessed via a Library electronic journal database may be made available by Readings and Reserve depending on the terms of the database or e-journal licence.

The service provided by Readings and Reserve will not normally include digitising and serving lecture content, images or audio-visual content. Lecture content and still images can be put online in MUSO instead, following the usual conditions of the Part VB 'CAL' or Part VA 'Screenrights' licences (refer to Teaching page).

Access to content made available via Readings and Reserve, in reliance on the Part VB 'CAL' licence, will be routinely suppressed after 12 months continuous availability online. A renewed request for communication of that same content is required for access after the 12 month initial communication period.

If the University is selected for sampling by CAL, Readings and Reserve will be involved in the Electronic Use sampling activity, providing data about communications made in reliance on Part VB of the Copyright Act.

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Collection management, maintenance and preservation

Libraries are required to make users aware of their use of copyright works in the collection by

  • adequate display of appropriate notices near copying equipment and computer terminals
  • securing declarations of intended use from users who request copies to be made on their behalf.

Library staff can also copy materials for administrative purposes including staff training activities, or activities specifically related to the management of the library's collection or archives. Libraries cannot make copies, in reliance on this part of the Act, simply for the purpose of 'stocking' the collection.

Library preservation activities

The Library can make replacement copies of works normally held in the collection for the purposes of repairing or replacing lost or damaged works. Monash will be applying for status as a Key Cultural Institution and this may enable the Library to make up to 3 copies of certain materials in the collection, for preservation and archiving purposes.

The Library may also make additional copies of works in the collection specifically for preservation purposes. This includes making preservation copies of particular editions of published works, even where a later edition is commercially available, provided that the desired earlier edition is, itself, not available commercially, and is sufficiently different to the later available edition to justify the copy being made.

Library staff undertaking preservation activities need to document their preservation activity, which may include making declarations confirming that an item is not commercially available. Such records and/or declarations need to be kept in chronological order for 4 years (in case of an audit).

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Document delivery

The Library holds a licence from the Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) which enables Monash Library to run a commercial document delivery service supplying external clients.

In order to provide a document delivery service for non-commercial research purposes, the Library relies on certain special exemptions in the Copyright Act (Section 49) to make and distribute copies on behalf of authorised requestors (staff, post-graduate or honours level students).

A request can be made for

  • a copy of a journal article (or a part of an article) held in a library collection or
  • a copy of more than one journal article from the same journal issue, provided that the articles relate to the same research or course of study;
  • a copy of the whole or a part of a published work held in a library collection; note that where more than 10% or one whole chapter is requested, Monash Library may fulfil the request by purchasing a copy of the requested work for the collection.

By submitting their request through the electronic form, requestors confirm that they

  • require the reproduction for the purpose of their own research or study and will not use it for any other purpose;
  • have not previously been supplied with a reproduction of the same article or other work, or the same part of the article or other work, as the case may be, by an authorised officer of the Library.

The Library is required to retain records of requests supplied for 4 years (in chronological order) in case of an audit.

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Limitations on amounts requested

If the item requested exceeds the usual limits on copying text as stated within the Copyright Act (eg, one chapter or 10% of a book or other similar document; one article from a single issue of a journal) the supplying staff member has decide whether to fill the request based on  

  1. The time by which the person requesting the copy requires it; and
  2. The time within which a commercially available copy of the work (apart from a second hand copy) could be delivered to the person; and
  3. Whether the person could access the same content through a commercially available electronic version of the work, available to them within a reasonable time and at an ordinary commercial price.

If a commercial copy cannot be delivered in time to meet the requestors need OR an electronic version is not available to them at a reasonable price (and also within the required time) then the library supply member can supply the request.

In all cases:  if need be, copies can be produced from another copy of an original work that was made or acquired legally by the Library (ie when relying on the preservation provisions in the Act). In other words, the library doesn’t have to obtain an original work to fill the request.

Note however that

  • Requests cannot be filled from the library’s licensed electronic resources (e-journals, e-books, etc.) unless the particular licences arranged for those resources include this kind of document supply in the licence terms. 
  • A charge beyond cost recovery cannot be imposed for the supply.

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Electronic supply of document copies (non-commercial supply)

Copies can be supplied electronically but these copies have to display the following notice (displayed before or at the same time as the copy can be accessed by the end user):

COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA
Copyright Regulations 1969
WARNING

This material has been provided to you pursuant to section 49 of the Copyright Act 1968 ( the Act ) for the purposes of research or study. The contents of the material may be subject to copyright protection under the Act.

Further dealings by you with this material may be a copyright infringement. To determine whether such a communication would be an infringement, it is necessary to have regard to the criteria set out in Part 3, Division 3 of the Act.

After supplying the copy, any interim copies made of the item during the supply process have to be destroyed or deleted from the Library system.

Records of requests supplied have to be retained by the Library in chronological order, for 4 years.

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Document delivery: requests between libraries

The Copyright Act also has a provision (Section 50) enabling the limited transfer of copied works between libraries. In such cases liability rests with the requesting library, not the supplying library.

For example, Monash University library may request, from another library,

  • a copy of a journal article (or a part of an article);
  • a copy of more than one journal article from the same journal issue, provided that
    • the copies are ultimately destined for a student or staff member who has requested them for their own research (ie copies can't be requested to augment the library collection), AND
    • the articles are for that individual's particular research or course of study;
  • a copy of the whole or a part of a published work that is not already available for purchase.
  • a replacement copy for a copy of a work which was originally supplied under this provision but which has since been lost or damaged.

As for the document supply process for individual researchers, records of requests supplied and related information about the commercial unavailability of requested copies have to be retained by the Library in chronological order, for 4 years.

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Maintaining library copying and electronic access equipment

The library has a responsibility to ensure that areas providing copying equipment (computers, photocopiers, microfiche copiers etc), for use by students and the general public, are adequately signed with the appropriate Copyright Warning notices. These notices are prescribed in the Copyright Regulations 1969 and are available for download from the resources and downloads page on this site.

Both of these are to be displayed at computers with Internet access, or with DVD and video-players, CD players and other multi-media equipment used by students and non-staff and/or the general public.

Administration of University-wide strategic projects: the Monash ARROW research repository

In addition to providing a research repository and online publication service for the research output of Monash academic staff, the ARROW repository also provides for the online publication of PhD theses and other postgraduate-level research.

Doctoral candidates seeking information about the requirements for submitting an e-thesis should contact Monash Research Graduate School and consult the advice within the PhD Handbook. Further advice on copyright requirements can also be found on this site on the Students page and advice about the submission procedure can also be obtained through the ARROW site.

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Send an email inquiry to the University's Copyright Adviser.