Document Delivery / InterLibrary Loan: Limits on Reproduction

The copyright activities of DD/ILL are governed primarily by Section 108 of the U.S. copyright law (Limitations on exclusive rights: reproduction by libraries and archives). In particular, the National Commission on New Technological Uses of Copyrighted Works, CONTU, developed guidelines "to assist librarians and copyright proprietors in understanding the amount of photocopying for use in interlibrary loan arrangements permitted under the copyright law" as regards "systematic reproduction." The CONTU guidelines are the basis for these "Limits on Reproduction."

These guidelines state that if an interlibrary loan operation requests more than five articles from the most recent five year period of a specific periodical title or other serial publication in a single calendar year, the library should consider whether those requests are substituting for a subscription to that periodical or serial publication. The library should consider whether a subscription would be appropriate for its collection.

This rule does not apply to articles from journals that are older than five years at the time the request is made by DD/ILL staff. Likewise, if any UConn library has a current subscription to a journal title or has a book or recording on order, the borrowing request is not counted as one of the five allowed under CONTU.

All interlibrary loan photocopies obtained for UConn Libraries users (including the UConn Health Center and the Law School Library) in excess of the first five are reported to the Copyright Clearance Center where royalties are paid each calendar year. These guidelines apply to both digital documents as well as paper.

The library's practice (as is the case with many libraries) is to pay the fee for uses in excess of five within the last five years of publication. CONTU allows for this as well.