ILL ADMINISTRATION
Chapter 4. BORROWER FUNCTIONS
Copyright Compliance Tracking
NOTE: Copyright compliance functionality is applicable to U.S. libraries only. Copyright compliance is a function of the borrowing library. All Non-Returnable (copy) borrowing requests must include an indication of compliance with the copyright law (CCL) or the CONTU Guidelines (CCG) when requests are sent to potential lenders. Borrowing requests for loans/returnables must not have any copyright compliance indication. This feature cannot be deactivated as it is a legal requirement to include a statement of copyright on all Non-Returnable (copy) requests.
ILL Administration tracks Non-Returnable (copy) requests covered by the CONTU Guidelines. Additionally, reports are available to view the titles with filled requests that fall under the CONTU Guidelines (see the RESEARCHit/SHAREit Statistics User Guide or VERSO Statistics User Guide for more information).
Section 108(g)(2) of the U.S. copyright law permits libraries to order articles via interlibrary loan “in such aggregate quantities” as long as they do not use ILL to substitute for a subscription to or purchase of the journal title. The National Commission on New Technological Uses of Copyrighted Works (CONTU) developed guidelines to quantify the phrase “in such aggregate quantities.” The Guidelines for the Provision of Subsection108(g)(2) are more commonly referred to as the CONTU Guidelines.
The CONTU Guidelines permit libraries to request and receive periodical (journal or serials) articles and excerpts from other collected works published within the past five years without paying a copyright royalty fee. The CONTU Guidelines do not apply to requests for copies of excerpts from monographs or other non-serial publications.
Each library that initiates Non-Returnable (copy) requests is required to track copyright compliance for the requests it submits. However, if a single library in a system is responsible for creating requests for patrons affiliated with any library in the system, only the library that generates the request(s) is required to track copyright compliance. Copyright compliance does not apply to individual patrons placing Non-Returnable (copy) requests, but to the library that generated the requests.
Within a calendar year (January 1st – December 31st), a library may order and receive up to five articles from a journal title without paying a copyright royalty fee. The articles must have been published within five years of the date of the request to be considered to fall under the CONTU “Guideline of Five.” Articles with publication dates older than five years from the date of the request are considered to fall under other provisions of the copyright law (indicated by ccl on the ILL request). Libraries may order and receive more than five copies of articles published within five years of the date of request; however, they may be liable for copyright royalty payment for the sixth and subsequent articles. They may also choose to purchase the article from a commercial document supplier, ask a library to loan the issue, or order the article from a library and report the transaction to the Copyright Clearance Center. The CONTU Guidelines are not strict rules or absolute limits; they are guidelines.
NOTE: Lenders are not required to, nor should they, maintain any copyright records for Non-Returnable (copy) requests they fill.