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Library Policies

Copyright at Allegheny

Peter Jaszi and Patricia Aufderheide have worked with many groups to develop a series best practices guidelines for using copyrighted material:

For more information about copyright, contact Doug Anderson at 814-332-3789 or email research.instruction@allegheny.edu.

Copyright law applies to nearly all creative and intellectual works

For a work to be protected by copyright law, it must be an idea that has been expressed and fixed in some sort of medium. The expression has to be original. To be considered original, there must be a “modicum of creativity” in how it has been expressed. In other words, once you create an original work, and fix it on paper, in clay, or on the drive of your computer, so that the work can be reproduced in some format, then the work is considered copyrightable. Therefore, copyright law protects a wide and diverse array of materials. Books, journals, photographs, works of visual art and sculpture, music, sound recordings, computer programs, websites, film, architectural drawings, choreography and many other materials are within the reach of copyright law. If you can see it, read it, hear it, or watch it, it likely is captured by copyright.

Works are protected automatically, without copyright notice or registration

Copyright protectable works receive instant and automatic copyright protection at the time that they are created. U.S. law today does not require placing a notice of copyright on the work or registering the work with the U.S. Copyright Office. The law provides some important benefits if you do use the notice or register the work, but you are the copyright owner even without these formalities.

 

Owners hold specific rights but not all rights

The law grants to copyright owners a series or bundle of specified rights:

  • Reproduction of works
  • Distribution of copies
  • Making of derivative works
  • Public performance and display of works
  • In addition, certain works of visual art have moral rights regarding the name of the artist on the work, or preventing the destruction of them
  • Copyright owners may also have rights to prevent anyone from circumventing technological protection systems that control access to the works

In addition, certain works of visual art have moral rights regarding the name of the artist on the work, or preventing the destruction of them. Copyright owners may also have rights to prevent anyone from circumventing technological protection systems that control access to the works.

Author is the first copyright owner

As a general rule, the initial owner of the copyright is the person who does the creative work. If you wrote the book or took the photograph, you are the copyright owner.

Exceptions to the rule: creating a work on someone’s behalf

If you created the work as an employee, acting within the scope of your employment, then the copyright owner is your employer. In addition, if you are a freelancer, and where your contract specifies that you have created a work as a “work made for hire”, then the first owner of the copyright is the person that contracted you to create it.

Copyright can be transferred

Copyright owners can give or sell their rights to others. Even in cases of employment or where a copyright protected work was created as a “work made for hire” copyright can be assigned or transferred back to the author. In addition, rights can be transferred temporarily by contract. These contracts are often called licensing agreements. A recipient of right by way of licensing agreement only has the ability to exercise those rights that are specified directly in the agreement. At the end of the life of the licensing agreement, those rights revert back to the copyright owner.

Copyright and publishing agreements

In an academic setting, we are frequently asked to transfer copyright in our books and articles to publishers. It is not a requirement of publication that rights be assigned or transferred permanently to a publisher. The right to publish can be licensed to the publisher temporarily or on a non-exclusive basis. The ability to transfer or retain our copyrights is an opportunity to be good stewards of our intellectual works and maintain our intellectual legacy.

Copyright expires

The basic term of protection for works created today is for the life of the author, plus seventy years. In the case of “works made for hire”, copyright lasts for the lesser of either 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation of the work. The duration rules for works created before 1978 are altogether different, and foreign works often receive distinctive treatment. Not only is the duration of copyright long but the rules are fantastically complicated. Below you will find links to a number of resources to assist in guiding you through a copyright duration question.

Copyright owners may allow public non-exclusive uses

A copyright owner may grant rights to the public to use a protected work. That grant could be a simple statement on the work explaining the allowed uses, or it may be a selection of a Creative Commons license. Similarly, the movement to make works “open access” or “open source” is a choice by the owner of rights to make works available to the public.

The public domain

Some works lack copyright protection, and they are freely available for use without the limits and conditions of copyright law. Copyright eventually expires too. When a work lacks copyright protection or where copyright has expires, it is said that the work enter the public domain. Works produced by the U.S. government are not copyrightable. Copyright also does not protect facts, ideas, discoveries, and methods.

FAIR USE AND PERMITTED USES

“Fair Use” is a legal doctrine that permits unlicensed use of copyright-protected works under certain conditions. Section 107 of the Copyright Act lists four factors to take into account when considering what might be a fair use:

  1. The purpose and character of the use;
  2. The nature of the copyrighted work used;
  3. The amount and substantiality of the part used; and
  4. The effect of the use on the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

Recently, the courts have tended to collapse the four fair use factors into two questions:

  1. Is the use you want to make of another’s work transformative — that is, does it add value to and repurpose the work for a new audience?
  2. Is the amount of material you want to use appropriate to achieve your transformative purpose?

The United States Copyright Office Fair Use Index states: “Transformative uses are those that add something new, with a further purpose or different character, and do not substitute for the original use of the work.”

If a use is not transformative, or if the amount you want to use goes beyond what you need to make your point, look more closely at the following options to make your determination:

  • Amount of use: A 2014 court decision (Cambridge University Press et al v. Patton et al) held that use of articles or chapters from longer works (works of 10 or more chapters total), or other small parts of shorter works or those with 9 or fewer chapters (10% or less); several charts, graphs or illustrations; small parts of works such as performances (audio, video) was likely a fair use.
  • Licensing options: Are licenses to use a work available on the open market? Is there an efficient and effective way to get a license that lets you do what you want to do? Contact the Merriman Bookstore for further information about licensing options through the Copyright Clearance Center. If effective and efficient licensing options are not available, the market’s failure to meet your needs to use materials supports your reliance on fair use.

See the American Library Association’s Checklist for Fair Use to help determine whether a use is fair.

Keep these points in mind when using copyrighted materials:

  • Always include any copyright notice found on the original.
  • Always include appropriate citations and attributions to the source.
  • Limit access to appropriate groups, such as students enrolled in a class.
  • Terminate access at the end of the class term.

Fair use analysis is never entirely certain. The American Library Association’s Checklist for Fair Use is a tool to help you determine whether you may make or distribute copies (i.e., put a copy in Canvas) of a work protected by copyright without permission from the copyright holder. If fewer than half the circumstances favor fair use, you should use a coursepack or put a paper copy on reserve in the library.

It is recommended that you (1) complete and retain a copy of this form in connection with each “fair use” of a copyrighted work, (2) be sure to properly cite the work when using it in Canvas or other platforms, and (3) include a copyright notice

Activities within fair use are not infringements

Fair use is not an infringement of copyright. It allows under certain conditions a person to use copyright protected material without permission. Fair use is an important right to use copyrighted works at the university. Fair use can allow us to clip, quote, scan, share, and make many other common uses of protected works. But not everything is within fair use. Fair use depends on a reasoned and balanced application of four factors: the purpose of the use; the nature of the work used; the amount used; and the effect of the use on the market for the original. A more in-depth discussion of fair use may be found at the Columbia University’s Copyright Advisory site.

Fair use is one of many statutory rights to use copyrighted works

Fair use is encoded in the U.S. Copyright Act, which also includes many other provisions allowing uses of works in the classroom, in libraries, and for many other purposes. These statutes, however, are highly detailed, and the right to use works is usually subject to many conditions and limitations.

Uses are also allowed with permission

If your use of a copyrighted work is not within one of the statutory exceptions, you may need to secure permission from the copyright owner. A non-exclusive permission does not need to be in writing, but a signed writing is almost always good practice. The permission may come directly from the copyright owner, or through its representative agent or copyright agency.

U.S. copyright law applies to domestic and foreign works

In general, the same principles of copyright under the domestic law of the U.S. (or of another country) apply to a work, whether the work originated in the U.S. or elsewhere. Under major multinational treaties, many countries have agreed to give copyright protection to works from most other countries of the world. Because the U.S. has joined such treaties, you should apply U.S. copyright law to most works, regardless of their country of origin. For a more in-depth discussion of copyright and foreign works, you can refer to Columbia University’s Special Cases page.

This section is licensed by a Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 4.0 DEED License with attribution to its author, Dr. Kenneth D. Crews.

Guidelines for Classroom Copying

Allegheny’s policy on the use of copyrighted information can be found in Section 9.6 of The Faculty Handbook.

This page contains specific information to help you determine whether your use of copyrighted material in coursepacks and Canvas is considered “fair use,” or whether you must seek permission to include some items. The tools and procedures outlined here were developed by the Library and Instructional Technology Committee. Additional information and guidance is available from:

For answers to frequently asked questions about copyright, see the U.S. Copyright Office FAQ.

FAIR USE: OVERVIEW AND MEANING FOR HIGHER EDUCATION BY KENNETH D. CREWS

Purpose

Congress favored nonprofit educational uses over commercial uses. Copies used in education, but made or sold at a monetary profit, may not be favored. Courts also favor uses that are “transformative,” or that are not mere reproductions. Fair use is more likely when the copyrighted work is “transformed” into something new or of new utility, such as quotations incorporated into a paper, and perhaps pieces of a work mixed into a multimedia product for your own teaching needs or included in commentary or criticism of the original. For teaching purposes, however, multiple copies of some works are specifically allowed, even if not “transformative.” The Supreme Court underscored that conclusion by focusing on these key words in the statute: “including multiple copies for classroom use.”

Nature

This factor examines characteristics of the work being used. It does not refer to attributes of the work that one creates by exercising fair use. Many characteristics of a work can affect the application of fair use. For example, several recent court decisions have concluded that the unpublished “nature” of historical correspondence can weigh against fair use. The courts reasoned that copyright owners should have the right to determine the circumstances of “first publication.” The authorities are split, however, on whether a published work that is currently out-of-print should receive special treatment. Fair use of a commercial work meant for the educational market is generally disfavored. Courts more readily favor the fair use of nonfiction, rather than fiction. Commercial audiovisual works generally receive less fair use than do printed works. A consumable workbook will most certainly be subject to less fair use than would a printed social science text.

Amount

Amount is measured both quantitatively and qualitatively. No exact measures of allowable quantity exist in the law. Quantity must be evaluated relative to the length of the entire original and in light of the amount needed to serve a proper objective. One court has ruled that a journal article alone is an entire work; any copying of an entire work usually weighs heavily against fair use. Pictures generate serious controversies, because a user nearly always wants the full image, or the full “amount.” On the other hand, a “thumbnail,” low-resolution version of the image might be an acceptable “amount” to serve an education or research purpose. Motion pictures are also problematic, because even short clips may borrow the most extraordinary or creative elements. One may also reproduce only a small portion of any work, but still take “the heart of the work.” This concept is a qualitative measure that may weigh against fair use.

Effect

Effect on the market is perhaps even more complicated than the other three factors. Some courts also have called it the most important factor, although such rhetoric is often difficult to validate. This factor means fundamentally that if you make a use for which a purchase of an original theoretically should have occurred — regardless of your personal willingness or ability to pay for such purchase — then this factor may weigh against fair use. “Effect” is closely linked to “purpose.” If your purpose is research or scholarship, market effect may be difficult to prove. If your purpose is commercial, then adverse market effect is often presumed. Occasional quotations or photocopies may have no adverse market effects, but reproductions of software and videotapes can make direct inroads on the potential markets for those works.

USING COPYRIGHTED MATERIALS IN CANVAS

Allegheny College expects that all employees who use copyrighted materials will make every good faith effort to use those materials in compliance with the federal copyright regulations in Section 107 of Chapter 17 of the United States Code.

The guidelines provided here are intended to help you determine whether your use of material in Canvas could be considered “fair use” or whether you need to seek permission to include some items in your Canvas course.

The principles of copyright law make no distinction between digital course content and paper-based content. In practice, this means that materials posted in your Canvas course require the same adherence to copyright as their non-digital counterparts such as coursepacks. If permission would be required for a print use, it will be required for an analogous digital use.

Canvas, Allegheny’s web-based learning management system, limits access to course sites because it provides secure access to the system only to students currently enrolled in the course. Canvas’s course sites limit availability by enrollment status and by time (specifically, the semester in which the course takes place). The following information applies to course sites which limit access in this way.

The following materials are appropriate for unrestricted use in Canvas:
  • Public domain material may be used without restriction. Determining public domain status can be complex; see Peter B. Hirtle’s guide to Copyright Term and the Public Domain for more information.
  • Creative Commons licensed material that permits others to share, remix, or use works. Learn more about Creative Commons licenses.
  • Works to which you yourself own the copyright.
  • Material provided by textbook publishers that is specifically licensed for use in a learning management system.
For materials available on-line that are protected by copyright:
  • Provide links to resources that are freely available on the Web; avoid copying the resources themselves to upload into Canvas.
  • Do not place copies of journal articles from databases licensed by Pelletier Library in your course site; link to them instead.
For all other materials protected by copyright:
  • Apply a fair use analysis to determine whether the material qualifies as a fair use. Research and Instruction Services at Pelletier Library recommends the use of the American Library Association’s Checklist for Fair Use as a helpful tool in your analysis.
  • If relying on fair use, be sure to properly cite the material and include a copyright notice.
  • If permission is needed, see the Merriman Bookstore for assistance in obtaining clearance from the Copyright Clearance Center.
  • Copies of published worksheets, workbooks, or other materials intended as “consumables” by students should not be placed in Canvas without the publisher’s permission.
  • If using material in a course for more than one semester, seek permission from the copyright holder.

ABOUT CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSES

The Creative Commons is a non-profit organization that works to increase the amount of creativity (cultural, educational, and scientific content) in “the commons” — the body of work that is available to the public for free and legal sharing, use, repurposing, and remixing. Creative Commons defines a spectrum of possibilities between full copyright and the public domain. Creative Commons licenses help authors/creators keep their copyrights while allowing certain uses of their works.

Creative Commons offers a variety of licenses to choose from, with information about how works issued under each license may be used. They also offer a License Chooser to help choose an appropriate license for your work.

Allegheny College Open Access Policy

In 2013, the faculty adopted an open access policy for faculty publications to ensure that such publications remain available to students and researchers at the College and to support the ongoing development of open access publishing.

In summary, the policy states:

Allegheny faculty are required to submit a copy of articles completed while they are employed by the College to the College’s institutional repository for the purposes of open dissemination. Pelletier Library is responsible for managing the repository and making scholarly articles available to the college community and to the public to the greatest extent possible.

The policy implies that faculty will negotiate publication agreements that allow for open dissemination when publishing articles. The implication is that such agreements will allow open dissemination no later than the date of publication. In practice, most faculty have been publishing in journals that allow open access after a short embargo, typically 12 months after the publication date.

To review the original policy, consult the Faculty Handbook.

Additional support for faculty publishing and scholarship will be taking place through the Center for Faculty Research & Teaching Excellence. Further details and guidelines are forthcoming as the Center is developed. Please contact Tressa Snyder, Dean of the Library (tsnyder@allegheny.edu) regarding Center support of publishing and scholarship.

Pelletier Library covers Article Processing Charges (APC) for the following publishers/journals:

American Chemical Society — includes the following journals:

To learn more about this program, visit PALCI’s page about open access publishing.

Key points:

  1. Allegheny’s agreement is through the PALCI consortium.
  2. You should be the submitting corresponding author.
  3. To ensure that your manuscript falls under Allegheny’s agreement:
    • Make sure your institutional affiliation is correct in the ACS Paragon Plus submission system. Use the dropdown box in Paragon to select Allegheny College.
    • Check that your affiliation is stated in the body of the manuscript as the corresponding author’s affiliation.
  4. After the library approves your open access funding request, your article will be published under a CC BY 4.0 license free of charge.

Association for Computing Machinery

Allegheny is participating in ACM’s OPEN model, which includes waivers for faculty publishing in ACM conferences, journals, and magazines. It does not include co-published conferences or journals.

Learn more about this program at Open Access Publication & ACM.

Key Points:

  1. You must be a corresponding author to participate in this program.
  2. Your primary affiliation must be Allegheny College, and email must be your Allegheny email address.
  3. When your manuscript is accepted, select the appropriate Creative Commons license following submission of the eRights form.

SpringerNature – includes over 2000 hybrid journals published by

Allegheny’s agreement does not cover fees for journals that are already fully open access. The goal of this agreement is to transform hybrid journals into fully open access journals.

To learn more about this program, visit the Open access agreement for Lyrasis or the Lyrasis Transformative Agreement with Springer Nature: A Guide for Authors.

Key Points:

  1. Allegheny’ agreement is through the Lyrasis Consortium.
  2. The following article types are covered in this agreement
    • Original papers – includes original research, original article, original paper or research paper.
    • Review papers.
    • Brief communications.
    • Continuing educations.
  3. You must be the corresponding author of the article.
  4. Your primary affiliation must be Allegheny College and email must be your Allegheny email address.
  5. After the library approves your open access funding request, your article will be published under a CC BY or CC BY-NC 4.0 license free of charge.

Additional Funding Options

For journals not listed above, the Library will provide up to $2500 to help defray the article processing charges (APC) for articles published in open access journals. To qualify, the journal must be listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals. For journals with APCs over $2500, faculty may want to contact the Academic Support Committee or Provost’s office for additional support. The Library will decline to fund APCs for articles published in subscription-based journals that will be freely available within 36 months of publication.

Use the Request for Processing Support form to submit your request. If you have any questions, please contact the Associate Director of the Library at bkern@allegheny.edu.

Links to the College’s Institutional Repository

Do you have an article to submit? Please contact the Digital Resources Librarian at bkern@allegheny.edu to get started.

Allegheny College’s repository of open access articles is the Faculty Scholarship and Open Access Collection.

Additional Resources

For more information on Open Access (OA), please see an Overview of Open Access at Wikipedia.

Know your rights when publishing! The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) has an excellent resource on understanding your rights, including an author addendum when it is needed.

Library Policy on Required Texts

As amended August 27, 2018

Placing Physical Copies of Course Texts on Course Reserve

When requested by the faculty member teaching the course, the library will place on course reserve physical copies of course texts which are already part of the library collection or copies provided to the library by a faculty member, the College bookstore, or another source. Unless the library has been informed that the text will be used again for a course in a subsequent semester, or unless the text was provided as a donation to the library, these texts will be returned to the providing party at the end of the semester for which they have been reserved.

The library does not purchase physical copies of textbooks that it does not already own nor does it purchase newer editions of textbooks of which an earlier edition is already in the collection.

Electronic Course Texts

The library owns or subscribes to collections of electronic materials that might be suitable as course texts. However, rights on electronic resources are restricted in some cases to one user viewing at a time, and in other cases, publishers may decided to remove titles from collections to which the library subscribes. For those reasons, faculty intending to use electronic materials (ebooks, streaming media, image collections) in the library collection should contact the library before the semester so that library staff can confirm the materials’ availability for multiple users through the end of the semester in which the course will be taught.

The library does not purchase electronic versions of textbooks that it does not already own, where “textbook” is as defined above.

Definitions

In this policy, “course texts” refers to all books and other materials (movies, audio recordings) that are required or suggested for a course.

For the purposes of this policy, “textbook” refers to material specifically designed and marketed to assist with the teaching of a subject.

Circulation Policy

As amended November 16, 2016

Objectives

  • To encourage circulation of materials based on the assumed term of need. Employees and seniors often have longer needs, underclass students and guests usually have shorter-term needs.
  • To maximize availability of materials to users through browsing. A book on our shelves is more likely to be identified as a good source.
  • To take advantage of Interlibrary Loan (ILL) as a faster and less disruptive alternative to recalling books which are in use and acquiring materials not owned.

Loan Periods and Renewals

The following chart describes the length of loan periods (L) and number of allowed renewals (R). Unless otherwise noted, the renewal period is the same as the loan period.
Employees
Seniors
Other Students
Alumni & Visitors
Books
L: 1 yr
R: 20
L: 1 sem
R: 2
L: 4 wks
R: 2
L: 4 wks
R: 0
Reference
special permission
special permission
special permission
noncirc
Faculty Development
L: 30 days
R: 1
special permission
special permission
special permission
Special Books
L: 4 wks
R: 2
L: 4 wks
R: 2
L: 4 wks
R: 2
L: 4 wks
R: 0
Journals
special permission
special permission
special permission
noncirc
Film (lower floor)
L: 1 wk
R: 1
L: 1 wk
R: 1
L: 3 days
R: 1
noncirc
Film (Access Services area)
L: 1 wk
R: 1
L: 3 hrs
R: 0
L: 3 hrs
R: 0
noncirc
Equipment (general)
L: 3 days
R: 2 days
L: 3 days
R: 2 days
L: 3 days
R: 2 days
noncirc
Equipment (departmental)
Rules are set by the owning department
Rules are set by the owning department
Rules are set by the owning department
Rules are set by the owning department
Laptops
L: 1 wk
R: 1
L: 1 wk
R: 0
L: 1 wk
R: 0
noncirc
Reserve Videos
L: 3 hours
R: 1
L: 3 hours
R: 1
L: 3 hours
R: 1
noncirc
Course Reserve
Loan periods and renewals vary, depending on faculty instructions
Loan periods and renewals vary, depending on faculty instructions
Loan periods and renewals vary, depending on faculty instructions
Loan periods and renewals vary, depending on faculty instructions
ILLiad
L: 8 wks
R: 0
L: 8 wks
R: 0
L: 8 wks
R: 0
noncirc
EZBorrow
L: 4 wks
R: 1
L: 4 wks
R: 1
L: 4 wks
R: 1
noncirc
Microform
noncirc
noncirc
noncirc
noncirc

Notes

  • Employees: Books due annually on February 15th.
  • Seniors: Books due at the end of the semester/summer
  • Renewals are not allowed if another patron has requested the material.
  • Recalls can cut loan periods short if another patron needs the material.
  • Interlibrary loan periods may be limited by the lending library.
  • Summer borrowing rules are the same as regular rules.
  • Senior privileges begin at the end of classes in their Junior year.

Checkout Limits

  • Checkouts to employees and students will be unlimited.
  • Checkouts to retired employees, employee children and spouses, and alumni will be limited to 20 items at one time.
  • Checkouts to guests, students or faculty from other colleges, and other special users will be limited to 2 items at one time.

Holds

When a patron (except a visitor or alum) needs material that is already checked out, they will be asked to use ILL as the preferred way to obtain it. If it is not available through ILL they may contact staff and ask that a hold be placed on the item. Holds on materials reserve that item for a patron as soon as it is returned to the library at the end of its normal loan period. Holds prevent the current borrower from renewing. Holds may be placed with or without recalls.

Recalls

Any patron who places a hold for a checked out item can ask for the item to be recalled. The original patron is guaranteed exclusive use for the first 4 weeks of a loan. After that recalls will be issued only if unavailable through ILL. Patrons are expected to return recalled materials within 2 days of the notice, which will be delivered by email.

Notices

Notices will be delivered by email except in unusual circumstances. The patron is responsible for reading and acting on emails.

Journal Circulation

Employees can take out periodicals without special permission. Bound journals can go out for 3 days. Non-bound, individual periodicals can go out for a week (these will need barcoded on the fly). If they require either of these longer, they will need special permission. Students need special permission to take out any periodicals, the circumstance will need to be evaluated.

Fines

College employees are charged fines only on recalled items and ILL items. Other patrons are charged as follows:

Material
Overdue week 1
Overdue week 2-3
Recalled
Book
$.25 per day
$1 per day
$1 per day
Video/DVD
$.25 per day
$1 per day
$3 per day
Equipment (major)
$10 per day
$10 per day
$10 per day
Equipment (headphones, etc.)
$1 per day
$1 per day
$1 per day
Reserve*
$1 per hr
$1 per hr
$1 per hr
ILL/EZBorrow
$1 per day
$1 per day
$1 per day
Laptop
$5 per day
$5 per day
$5 per day

Collection Management Philosophy

As amended March 2017

Allegheny’s Pelletier Library is committed to providing students, staff, and faculty seamless access to the information resources they need to fulfill the educational mission of the College. The purpose of the Library’s collection is to provide the finding aids and resources needed to support the undergraduate curriculum at the time of need. To make best use of the College’s resources in support of the curriculum, the Library’s collection is focused on three types of resources:

Indexes, which may contain full-text content but are purchased primarily for their value as tools to find resources
Print and electronic journals, particularly those that support work in introductory and intermediate level course
Monographs, which includes print and electronic books, as well as video and audio titles.
To support students and faculty pursuing more advanced work, the Library is committed to locating and acquiring materials that are not held in the Library’s collection when needed.

§1. Acquisitions

Material Format

Since digital resources are more broadly accessible and more heavily used by our student population, all materials are usually acquired in an appropriate digital format. Materials will be purchased in other formats if the digital version is in some way inferior to the analog format, the digital version is cost prohibitive, or the expected use justifies the purchase of an analog format. For example, digital representations of artworks are often inconsistently rendered, so for art references, a print format is often preferable to a digital version; the scholarly value of some works is enhanced by being able to see the context in which they are displayed, which again argues for print over digital; and although digital monographs are often preferable for fast retrieval and quick reference, the limits of current technology suggest that extended reading is typically better done on print copies. When requested to do so by faculty to support the College’s curriculum, the Library will purchase print versions of works it has in digital form or digital versions of work it has in print form, provided such purchases are not unduly expensive.

General Selection Criteria

The Library staff encourage faculty and students to participate in selecting materials for the Library’s collection. The Library is seeking materials that are relevant to the curriculum and meet one of the following criteria, which are ranked in order of their importance:

  1. Material that supports the curriculum is our highest priority. Such material is likely to be placed on course reserve, to have specific reference made to it in a course, or to be used for class preparation. Required textbooks are an exception to this preference. The Library does not normally acquire such works.
  2. Material that supports students preparing papers or projects is also a high priority, particularly if it is likely to be used by multiple students over a multi-year period.
  3. Material that provides broad subject coverage, adds alternative perspectives, or supports a basic liberal arts education are valuable additions to the Collection, and are acquired as resources allow.

The following factors help determine which materials within the above categories will be purchased:

  • Faculty recommendations
  • Authority (reputation) of creator
  • Reviews such as those found in Choice reviews or disciplinary outlets
  • Currency and enduring value of material
  • The strength of the Library’s present holdings in the subject and whether the material fills a gap in the Library’s coverage or supplements existing materials
  • Licensing restrictions and the balance between cost and value
  • Ease of patron access and use
  • Expense related to the Library’s management of the material
Specific Criteria — Indexes

The Library seeks to provide adequate index coverage for every academic program offered by the College, although cost constraints make it impossible to purchase the primary index in every field of study. Factors that contribute to the selection of indexes for the collection include:

  • Uniqueness of searching capabilities as related to discipline or program needs
  • Uniqueness of content
  • Level of use relative to cost
  • Faculty recommendations
Specific Criteria — Journals

The Library seeks to provide a journal collection with broad coverage for each area of study offered by the College. Coverage is expected to be sufficient to meet immediate needs in introductory courses and to serve as a starting point for more advanced research. As with indexes, the quantity of good titles and the cost of journal material makes it impossible for the Library to purchase significant quantities of advanced material other than that acquired in the process of selecting materials needed to meet introductory needs in a discipline. The Library works with advanced students and researchers to acquire copies of more specialized content. Recognizing the importance of specialized content in supporting student and faculty work, the Library invests in technologies and processes to facilitate rapid acquisition of journal articles needed by students and faculty once such articles have been identified.

Factors that contribute to the selection of journals for the collection include:

  • Ensuring appropriate support for general and introductory-level inquiries in all areas of the curriculum
  • Level of use relative to cost
  • Faculty recommendations
  • Assessment of document delivery requests to identify gaps in the collection coverage

In most cases, journals are acquired in large packages because of the efficiency of such purchases (as measured by cost per use) relative to the purchase of individual titles.

When a new package or title subscription is added, it will be assessed after 2 – 3 years. All long-standing subscriptions will be assessed every year. Assessments of long-standing subscriptions will be based on the most recent 4 years of use because usage levels are affected by changes in the the curriculum and interests of students and faculty.

Individual journal subscriptions which are available in our JSTOR Archive with a gap of three or fewer years will normally be cancelled.

Journals without use data (primarily print journals) are reviewed on a regular basis to determine if there is a continuing need for that journal to support the undergraduate curriculum.

Specific Criteria — Monographs

The Library will purchase or borrow, if at all possible, any monographic publication requested by Allegheny students, faculty, and staff. The Library’s decision whether to purchase or borrow monographic materials is based on the following criteria:

  • Relevancy to the curriculum
  • Proposed use and need (e.g., for course reserves, ongoing project)
  • Appropriateness for the collection
  • Authoritativeness of the author, editor, publisher, and content
  • Price
  • Timeliness of materials
  • Demand or patterns of borrowing materials

The Library does not normally purchase duplicate monographs or textbooks, although exceptions are made in accordance with warranted use and available funds.

When purchasing monographs, electronic formats are preferred over physical formats unless there are countervailing circumstances such as faithfulness of color reproduction, a particular use case that argues for physical format, or price concerns. When purchasing books, soft cover books are preferred over hardcover when there is a significant cost difference.

Recent experience has shown that demand-driven-acquisition or subscription services for electronic monographs provide a better return on investment than traditional purchasing models since they provide immediate access to a large volume of material yet require payment only for those titles that are actually used by Library patrons. Consequently, the Library elects to subscribe to such services in lieu of purchasing individual titles or bundles of titles when appropriate opportunities arise.

Since it is usually possible to acquire print titles within a few days of request and the cost of acquiring, managing, and storing a monograph just in case it might be needed can be a significant drain on Library resources, the Library does not normally acquire print monographs unless there is a faculty request for a specific print title that conforms to the guidelines outlined in this policy.

§2. Gift Policy

Due to the resource investment required to evaluate and appropriately steward print books and other materials, the library does not normally accept gifts of books intended for the general collection. Potential donors that have materials that may be appropriate for Special Collections or the College Archives should contact the Director of the Library, who will make decisions about whether to accept such gifts in collaboration with the Special Collections Librarian, College Archivist, and Provost. Such decisions will be based on the alignment of the potential gift with the College’s mission and the institution’s ability to steward the gift appropriately.

§3. Deselection

Significant time, budget, and space are required to manage the Library collection, and good materials can become lost in the collection should the volume of lower-quality or outdated materials grow large enough to hide good materials. As a consequence, good resource and collection stewardship practices include a thoughtful program of deselection and deaccession.

The Library considers for deselection materials that are likely to be available from other sources should they be be needed in the future, and that exhibit one or more of the following characteristics:

  • In poor physical condition
  • Duplicate copies
  • Judged to be inappropriate for a College library collection
  • Outdated or superseded by newer editions
  • No longer being used or likely to be used by Library patrons
  • No longer relevant to the curriculum

 

The Library reserves the right to rely on the discretion of Library staff when electing to deaccession materials that are in poor physical condition, duplicate existing materials, or are judged inappropriate for an academic library or outdated. The Library will consult with faculty before deaccessioning any materials the Library believes may no longer be useful to support the College’s curriculum.

Deselection Process

Each year, the Library reviews a portion of the collection and flags items meeting six conditions:

  • The item was published 20 or more years ago.
  • The Library has had a copy of the item on the shelves for at least 10 years.
  • The item has no more than two circulations ever.
  • The item has no documented circulation, course reserve, or internal use in the last 10 years.
  • Library staff know of no impending curricular change or other reason to believe the item will be used in the future.
  • The item is available for interlibrary loan from multiple other academic libraries.

Once materials have been flagged for possible deaccession, the Library will notify the chairs of programs that might be affected. Faculty in programs that might be affected will be given a reasonable amount of time to visit Pelletier to review those items being considered for removal, with the length of the review period depending on the volume of texts to be reviewed. In no case will such review periods be less than two weeks. At the end of the faculty review period, the Library will deaccession any materials that faculty have not requested be retained.

*Reserve fines will be charged for 72 hours, after which the book will be declared lost and billed.

The following time-table will be used to alert patrons to overdues and assess fines:

  • A few days before the due date, we will send a courtesy notice alerting the patron
  • The first 3 days after the due date will be a grace period, and no fines will be charged if the material is returned during that grace period. If it is returned after the grace period, fines will be charged for those days. The grace period for reserves is 15 minutes.
  • After that initial fine period, all fines will be increased for succeeding days/hours until the material is declared “lost.”

Lost and long-overdue materials

If material is not returned in a reasonable amount of time, we will assume the material is lost and the patron will receive a replacement bill.

If material which is billed as lost is returned, replacement and processing fees will be waived, and the patron will be charged the total overdue fine.

Anyone who loses library or ILL materials will be charged:

  • The true cost of replacement or, in the case of ILL, the lending library’s cost
  • Processing and billing fees
  • Any accumulated overdue or recall fines

If a student has not paid their bills by the end of the semester, the bill will be sent to Student Accounts and a $5 processing fee will be added.

Visitors

Visitors who consistently have overdue or lost books will lose their borrowing privileges.

Special Collections Collection Development Policy

As amended July 2019.

Purpose

The Special Collections Department of Allegheny College Pelletier Library creates access to and provides assistance in using materials of significant historical and/or research value for faculty and students of Allegheny College and for scholars of other institutions.

We are primarily interested in collecting materials that enhance the existing collections. Over time, we may have opportunities to re-evaluate collections and build new ones. Because initiating a new collection creates a commitment to both build and care for it, decisions to add a collection will be made by the Library Director in consultation with the Special Collections Librarian and with the College administration.

Considerations for Selection Decisions (in existing collections)

The various collections within Special Collections have been created through gifts and donations to Allegheny College; we expect this to continue to be the primary source of additional materials. The Special Collections Librarian will review and recommend items for addition to the collections, and for occasional transfers of items from the general collection. Stringent criteria will be used to assess the acceptance of new gifts because of limitations on space, staffing and preservation resources.

The following criteria, together or separately, will be considered in deciding whether to add to the Special Collections

  • if they add value or complement existing collections
  • if they have potential long-term research use for the College
  • if the volume and condition can be maintained in Special Collections
  • if they are rare
  • if they are free of access restrictions and become property of Allegheny College

Artifacts will be accepted and added in extraordinary circumstances and when the item enhances or complements an established collection.

Considerations for De-Accession Decisions

The removal of any item from Special Collections is a serious matter. An item will be considered for de-accession when a collection is surveyed and that item qualifies as stated below. The many gifts in Special Collections were given to the College for the specific purpose of making them available to our scholars and enhancing the College’s scholarly materials. To preserve this intent of the donors, any income from the sale of an item from the existing Collections shall be put into a fund that will be used to enhance the existing Special Collections; the collections will not be considered a source of general income for the College. The Special Collections Librarian will review and recommend materials for de-selection, with input from the Library Director.

The following criteria, together or separately, may contribute to removal of an item from Special Collections:

  • lack of significance to the history of Allegheny College
  • lack of relevance or usefulness to any existing, cohesive collection
  • more appropriately shelved in Archives or the General Collection
  • extremely poor physical condition

Before any Special Collections item is removed completely from the Library, the Library Director will contact the Development Office to discover the source of the item and any wishes that the donor may have had with respect to its handling. The Director will also consult with faculty in any related fields to determine if the item is of value to the curriculum. If these sources indicate that the removal can proceed, the Library Director will present a brief written proposal to the Provost of the College describing the item(s) to be removed, how the above criteria apply, and how a fair price for the item(s) will be determined. Once the Provost of the College has granted approval for sale of the item(s), the Library Director may proceed with removal and, if possible, sale. Final approval for sale of items valued at more than $25,000 must be given by the College President.

Subjects for Collecting

(a draft list based on current collection strengths)
  • Bibles
  • Artist Books
  • Chautauqua (Redpath societies)
  • Civil War histories
  • History of the Sciences
  • History of the Book (incunabula)
  • Lincoln
  • Local history, Meadville or Crawford County
  • Local oil / railroad histories
  • Materials relating to Ida M. Tarbell

Types of Materials that will be considered:

  • Artists Books
  • Books published by Allegheny alumni
  • Books with unique physical characteristics:  binding, paper, year of publication, signed
  • Diaries, journals, letters
  • Historical Works
  • Manuscripts
  • Pamphlets
  • Personal papers
  • Photographs
  • Works that complete a series

Merrick Archives Collection Development Policy

As approved June 27, 2019.

Statement of Purpose (Mission Statement)

The Merrick Archives will identify, collect, organize, describe, preserve and exhibit, historical records of enduring value to Allegheny College. This material shall be preserved in a central location to make it available to administrators, faculty, students, alumni and outside scholars.

Collection Priorities and Donor Gifts

The official records of the college, produced or received by employees of Allegheny College engaged in official college business, is the primary focus of our collections. Transfer of official college records is governed by our records management policy.

We will consider gift donations of unofficial records of historical importance for preservation, depending on the available space and resources. These may include:

  • Illustrative Materials (Photographs, portraits, drawings, posters, postcards, slides, videos, audio recordings etc.)
  • Publications of faculty, administrators, and staff
  • Publications related to the history of the college
  • Memorabilia
  • Scrapbooks
  • Clippings
  • Albums
  • Commemorative objects, jewelry and other artifacts
  • Contemporary Comment on the College
  • Reminiscences
  • Oral Histories

The archives does not actively collect items that are not directly related to the history or work of the college or personal papers and/or writing of Alumni or Faculty/Staff related to their post college life.

Potential gifts will be evaluated by the archivist in consultation with the Associate Director of the Library. The Director of the Library and the Provost will be consulted as needed, particularly for larger collections. Decisions will be based on appropriateness of the gift to our collections, space available, and estimated time and costs to process the material. All manuscript and archival collections donated by individuals or organizations other than Allegheny College will be transferred by a Deed of Gift signed by both parties. A letter or email of acceptance and thank you will serve as a record of receipt and transfer for any individual items which are not donated as part of a whole collection (e.g. a single yearbook, image, or athletic medal), unless the donor owns and is also transferring copyright in the item(s). In that case, a deed of gift will be required.

Donated materials are accepted according to the following conditions.

CONDITIONS OF GIFT:

  1. Allegheny College will store and maintain these materials according to accepted archival principles and procedures to ensure both preservation and accessibility to researchers. Allegheny College shall not be liable for damage or destruction of materials by fire, water, or other casualty.
  2. The college will dispose of any surplus materials as indicated by the donor in this agreement. Surplus materials are any items which are determined to have no enduring value or historical interest, are outside the scope of materials collected by the college, or those items which cannot be adequately housed. If the donor does not specify disposition instructions for surplus materials, the college will use its own discretion in disposing of unwanted materials.
  3. All materials will be made available to all qualified researchers on equal terms of access. Donors who require restrictions on access or use of their materials for reasons of privacy or confidentiality must complete a separate restricted materials agreement form to be filed with this deed of gift.
  4. Researchers using these materials will be supplied copies, upon request, of items from the collection(s) in accordance with policies of the Merrick Archives, unless the donor restricts such copying in a separate restricted materials agreement filed with this deed of gift. This type of restriction must have an expiration date.
  5. The college will refer all requests to publish or quote the materials to the owner of the copyright of the materials.
  6. If copyright is transferred, Allegheny College, as owner of copyright transferred by deed of gift, may exercise or transfer to a third party the right of quotation or publication of materials in this collection.

The Merrick Archives is a division of the non-profit entity Allegheny College. Donations may qualify as tax deductible. IRS regulations do not permit the Archivist or other college employees to appraise gifts. Donors who desire an appraisal should make arrangements to have that done before making a donation to the archives.

Library Visitor Internet Access Policy

As amended February 17, 2021.

Visitor Use of Computers in Pelletier

Internet access for visitors is available through special logins, with passwords which are good for one day only, and only in Pelletier Library. Visitors may request this access at the Library Services desk. Visitors must abide by College policies, including the Appropriate Use Policy and Allegheny College’s Statement of Community, as well as applicable local, state, and federal statutes.

Visitor Access to the Wireless Network

Any visitor to the library building may connect their personal wireless devices by connecting to the Allegheny Guest network and following the prompts onscreen to register for a username and temporary password.

Student Network

Allegheny College now offers a new network specifically for students – Allegheny Students. We encourage students to connect all devices to the student network.

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Contact:
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