The Yale University Library encourages both free distribution of information and respect of ownership rights in intellectual property. Web pages created as part of the Library's services are freely available for educational and non-profit use. Library staff use works created by others in YUL web sites in compliance with U.S. copyright law. Below are procedural guidelines to clarify this policy on copyright management of Library web pages.

NOTE: The University Library has significant but not yet systematically developed experience in providing online support for courses of instruction. Such support is often designed for particular courses, and password or other devices may restrict access to web pages. This document offers no guidance on copyright management issues arising out of direct library support for classroom instruction.

Please contact a member of the Public Interfaces Committee with issues or questions related to this policy.

1. Use of digitized works on Library web sites

   Before using a digitized reproduction or representation of an original work on your web page you must:

   1. Determine whether the work is in the public domain and therefore freely available for use.

      For further information see: When do works pass into the public domain?

   2. Determine whether the proposed use of a copyright protected work may be permitted under one or more of the several limitations on the rights of copyright owners provided under U.S. copyright law. Fair use is one of these limitations.

      For further information see: Fair Use of Copyrighted Works

   3. If the work is not in the public domain and if the proposed use is not protected under the limitations on owner's rights, determine (insofar as possible) who the owner might be.

      For further information see: Who owns what?

   4. Attempt to contact the copyright owner for permission, if the work is protected by copyright.

      For further information see: Obtaining Permissions

   5. If permission is granted, use the work; if permission is denied, do not use the work; and if there is no response after several attempts, use the work. Credit the copyright owner on your web page.

      Implementation Guidelines

2. Copyright notice
   1. All web pages for which the Yale University Library is the copyright owner (see section C below) must bear the following copyright notice:

      © [year of publication] Yale University Library

      Implementation Guidelines

   2. This notice must itself be linked to the following more comprehensive statement:

      Copyright Statement

      Users of this site may copy content from it without permission (excluding any material for which the Yale University Library does not hold copyright) if the Yale University Library is acknowledged in the copy and the copy is used for educational or not-for-profit purposes.

      Any public domain material embedded on this site may of course be used without permission.

      We welcome links to our sites. You are free to establish a hypertext link to any Yale University Library web page as long as the link does not state or imply any sponsorship of your site by Yale University or any Yale University library.

      For commercial use of this site, please refer to the application form Publishing Materials Held in the Yale University Library Collections.

      Notice to Copyright Holders

      The creators of the Yale University Library web site have made every effort to secure permission to use the works of others on this page. Any use of others' works on this site is the result of either explicit permission from the copyright owner, a good faith belief (following investigation) that the work is in the public domain, or a fair use for purposes of research and scholarship under copyright laws. See e.g., 17 U.S.C S107 (1996). Our goal is to make information and resources available to the community; we have no intent to offend anyone's ownership rights in intellectual property. If you are a copyright claimant with regard to any work on this site, and you object to our use of it, please contact Alice Prochaska , Yale University Librarian, or Philip Long , University Director of Information Technology Services. Either of these University officers will be pleased to confer with you about any concerns you might have.

      Copyright Law

      The U.S. Copyright Office and the Copyright Law
      Fair Use (PDF document)

      Library Administrative Services will maintain a web page containing the above statement; however the statement may be incorporated as the site administrator sees appropriate.

      Implementation Guidelines

   3. In accordance with the Yale University Copyright Policy, copyright of Yale University Library web pages is considered to belong to the employer under work-for-hire rules as defined by the copyright law. Individual staff members are invited to advance an argument to the University Librarian for circumstances in which the individual creator would claim copyright in the Library's web content. The University Librarian will confer with members of the Library Management Team in responding to claims for individual copyright ownership.

      For more information on work-for-hire see:
      Copyright Law (Title 17, Section 101)
      Yale University Copyright Policy

[This policy was approved by the Library Management Council on 4/5/00]; updated 12/4/02

Implementation Guidelines

Acknowledgements

You should acknowledge the copyright owner on your web page. The acknowledgement may be explicitly recorded on the web page or contained in the html code, like the image ALT tag.

Example copyright acknowledgements:

Used with permission of State University Press
© 1999 J. Smith
<img src="image.gif" alt="Painting by van Gogh, Copyright 1997 University Art Gallery">
<! This image is used with the permission of the History Department>

Return to the policy section on use of works

Incorporating the copyright notice

<A HREF="http://www.library.yale.edu/htmldocs/copyright.html">&copy; 2000 Yale University Library</A>

(See the bottom of this page for an example.)

The official Library copyright policy statement is maintained at http://www.library.yale.edu/htmldocs/copyright.html. Site administrators are free to incorporate the language of the statement within the framework and design of their particular web site (i.e., a site administrator may create a separate page containing the copyright statement).

Some web developers may wish to create a standard footer containing the copyright notice and other standard elements which will be automatically inserted in all web pages. See the Library Systems Office guide on server-side includes for more information.

Return to policy section on the copyright notice