Library’s Thursday Insights: Permitted and limited use of electronic resources
Electronic resources are flexible and offer different opportunities to use than printed materials. Remote access to electronic resources works with utu IDs via library’s Volter database. Although many ways to use are allowed, there are also restrictions. The use is regulated by license agreements between the university and the service provider.
License obligates
It is always a good idea for the user to read the terms of use for electronic resources before starting to use. Although there are often many similarities between the terms of use of different resources, sometimes agreements do contain special terms.
The service provider requires that the library informs customers of the terms of use. At University of Turku, this has been solved so that the availability screen in Volter contains a link to the terms of use of the resource in question.
The terms and conditions of use of electronic resources are agreed upon in license agreements, which define the rights and obligations of users. At the acquisition services of the library, the agreements are carefully read through to ensure that all the terms of agreement are acceptable. Clarifications to the agreement terms may be requested prior to the acquisition of the resource. A condition for accepting the agreement may be that the service provider implements the changes requested by the library on a case-by-case basis.
Permitted or not?
The agreements usually state that electronic resources may be used specifically for teaching and research. Recording or copying a part of the resource for personal use is almost invariably allowed, but there is plenty of variation as to the extent to which this can be done. It is also allowed to send journal articles to colleagues in the same organization and sometimes even across organizational boundaries when conducting research collaboration. In addition, it is often possible to store parts of the resources in course packages in closed learning environments. Whether text and data mining is allowed varies a lot from agreement to agreement. If you are planning on text and data mining, it is recommended to check the terms and conditions of the resources you are using from the library.
All commercial use of electronic resources is generally prohibited. You must be careful with copyright notices: they must not be removed or altered. Prohibited use may be technically blocked: for example, printing an e-book will no longer be possible once the cap of the print quota has been reached.
Agreements and AI
Since last year, agreements on electronic resources have begun to introduce clauses restricting the use of artificial intelligence. These have been compiled in the library's AI guide under the tab “Artificial Intelligence in Electronic Resources License Agreements”.
Consequences of breach of agreement terms
Service providers have sometimes demanded from the library an investigation of the use violating the usage restrictions. Access to the resource has then been cut off from a specific IP address or completely until the misuse has been resolved. In these cases, the service provider requires the library to find out who is responsible for the activities in breach of agreement and to be in contact with the user. There have been a few such cases each year. In the worst case, a breach of agreement may result in the termination of the agreement as a whole.
More information
If you are wondering about the terms of use of the resources, for more information, please, contact library@utu.fi. We are happy to receive your feedback also at the same address if there are technical problems with using the resources.
Library's Thursday Insights – news and presentations about information resources
Thursday is full of information! The library has a comprehensive selection of high-quality information resources that support the research, teaching, and studying of the academic community. In Thursday Insights, you will find news about information resources and selected highlights from the library's information resource collections.