Course Reserve - Depositing Policy

Because of the copyright concern, the Library will not accept requests for depositing in the Course Reserve any photocopies of articles or book chapters that are not copyright cleared. Academic staff will need to seek permission from the copyright owner and provide to the Library with a copyright clearance support document when submitting materials as such to the Library.

However, academic staff should note that "multiple copies of a work may be made by or on behalf of a teacher giving a course" under certain circumstances. A set of guidelines called "The Guidelines for Photocopying of Printed Works by Not-for-profit Educational Establishments", developed under the Copyright Ordinance by a working group chaired by the Director of Intellectual Property Department HKSAR, enables teaching staff to decide to what extent and under what circumstances they can make multiple copies of printed materials, and distribute the copies to their students during class. Details of the Guidelines can be found on the CityUHK web page "University Intellectual Property Policy and Related Matters (Chinese version) ".

Academic staff may also consider the following alternatives:

1. Request the Library to put the book that contains the article concerned on Course Reserve if a copy of the book is available in the Library's Circulation Collection.
2. Request the Library to purchase a copy of the book that contains the article concerned if the book is not available in the Library.
3. If the Library already has an issue of a journal (printed version) that contains the article, students can be referred to consult this issue of the journal in-house.
4. Check for an electronic version or a substitution from the Library-subscribed Electronic Resources, and request the Library to create an electronic reserve record in the Library Catalouge by inserting a link to the Course Reserve item for students to access the full text online. You may also consider creating a citation link yourself for your own Blackboard Course.
5. Consider the Course Pack option.

Any queries regarding the Depositing Policy can be directed to the Library via email [email protected] or by phone at 3442-6954.