Skip to Main Content

Interlibrary Loan (ILL): Copyright Compliance

Information about the Ikeda Library's Interlibrary Loan (ILL) services

Copyright Compliance

  • ILL items received from other libraries may not be shared with other people. The copyright exemption for ILL materials is based on the assumption that they are used for private study only. Therefore, a copied article obtained through ILL becomes the property of the patron and must be used for personal study or research purposes only.
  • Any use restrictions set by the lending library, such as no photocopying or for use in the library only, will be strictly followed.
  • Copyright compliance is very important to Ikeda Library, and the following notice about copyright, in a font size no smaller than 8 points, is displayed on the electronic forms for requesting ILLs and on all ILL documents delivered to patrons as well.

The copyright law of the United States (title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction. One of these specific conditions is that the photocopy or reproduction is not to be “used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research.” If a user makes a request for, or later uses, a photocopy or reproduction for purposes in excess of “Fair Use,” that user may be liable for copyright infringement. This institution reserves the right to refuse to accept a copying order if, in its judgment, fulfillment of the order would involve violation of copyright law.

  • The library includes the copyright notice as it appears on the original publication on all copied ILL materials.  An additional warning notice is also stamped on the material: “The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, U.S. Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material; the person receiving this copy is liable for any infringement in its use.
  • Following the guidelines set by the National Commission on New Technological Uses of Copyrighted Works: CONTU, the library keeps track of borrowing requests and pays the required royalty fees when the requests exceed the Rule of Five. The Rule of Five states that, for periodicals that are less than 5 years old, up to 5 articles from a single periodical may be borrowed in a calendar year. The payment is made through the Copyright Clearance Center.