Fair Use Assessment - Librarians

Summary: This document will outline the Fair Use Assessment for a Librarian.

Introduction

This Fair Use Assessment is a tool to help Professors and Librarians determine whether a given use of work is within the limits of Fair Use. The four Factors (Purpose, Nature, Amount and Effect) form the structure of this Assessment. Every file-based Reading Request that gets added to eReserve Plus, will be presented with a Fair Use Assessment upon submission.

Fair Use Assessment

Each factor of the Fair Use Assessment will contain a list of options for Opposing Fair Use and Favoring Fair Use along with a fairness rating continuum at the bottom the pages which is optional.

Purpose

This is the first factor of the Fair Use Assessment. It is where you describe the Purpose and character of your intended use and how that relates to Fair Use. There are specific options for Opposing Fair Use and Favoring Fair Use that can be selected which is related to the Purpose of the intended work.

Nature

This is the second factor of the Fair Use Assessment. This is where the Nature is described of the copyrighted work and how that relates to Fair Use. There are specific options for Opposing Fair Use and Favoring Fair Use that can be selected which is related to the Nature of the intended work.

Amount

This the is third factor of the Fair Use Assessment. This is where the Amount is described of the intended use in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole and how that relates to Fair Use. There are specific options for Opposing Fair Use and Favoring Fair Use that can be selected which is related to the Amount of the intended work.

Effect

This is the final factor of the Fair Use Assessment. This is where the Effect is described of the intended use on the market or potential value of the copyrighted work and how that relates to Fair Use. There are specific options for Opposing Fair Use and Favoring Fair Use that can be selected which is related to the Effect of the intended work.

Summary

The Summary will include the Level of Fairness which is determined and calculated by the responses provided in each of the Four Factors. There is a section called Your assessment of use which is your own assessment based on the evaluation. Lastly, there is a text box to add Other Factors or reasoning that would have an impact on the overall fairness of use.

NB: The Level of Fairness should not be misunderstood as the true measure of fairness of your proposed use as this is a mathematical average of the evaluations.

The Level of Fairness and assement is displayed in the Summary page — Figure 5: Summary of Fair Use Assessment with the Level of Fairness

If the continuum has not been moved in any of the four factors, it will deem the Level of Fairness to be Missing and will present no Level of Fairness.

The Missing Level of Fairness page — Figure 6: Summary of Fair Use Assessment without the Level of Fairness

Reviewing a Fair Use Assessment

Review Required

If a Professor submits a Fair Use Assessment, it will be required to be reviewed by a Librarian. This can be identified by an icon which will be displayed on the Request before reviewing.

An icon to indicate that a library review for the Fair Use Assessment is required — Figure 7: Fair Use Assessment - Reviewed required

Reviewing a Assessment will display what the Professor selected for each of the Factors, the selection made for Your assessment of use and any Other factors that they may have added.

Reviewed

Once a Fair Use Assessment has been reviewed and approved by a Librarian, the icon will be changed to green and the Reading Request will become Active or Pending.

An icon to indicate that a library review for the Fair Use Assessment has been completed — Figure 8: Fair Use Assessment - Review completed

Re-review

If a Professor re-reviews a Fair Use Assessment and makes changes, it will be required to be re-reviewed by a Librarian and the Fair Use Assessment icon will be changed. Once the Fair use Assessment has been approved by a Librarian, the Assessment will be marked as approved and the icon will be changed to green.