Authority
- Final authority for material selection rests with the Director of Library Services. Selection is the shared responsibility of faculty, staff, students and the Library Advisory Board (LAB).
- Revisions to the ANU Collection Development Policy are drafted by the LAB, and final approval rests with Academic Committee.
Standards
- The ANU Library system adheres to the standards set forth by the Association of College & Research Libraries: http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/standardslibraries, and may choose to advance additional library standards in order to successfully deliver resources and services to the University.
- This Policy is also guided by the standards established by the University’s accrediting bodies, as well as requirements articulated by programmatic accreditors.
Copyright Policy of American National University
The federal copyright statute, Title 17, U.S. Code, governs the reproduction of works of authorship. In general, works governed by copyright law include such traditional works of authorship as books, photographs, music, drama, video and sculpture, and also software, multimedia, and databases. Copyrighted works are protected regardless of the medium in which they are created or reproduced. Copyrighted works are not limited to those that bear a copyright notice. Works published since March 1, 1989 need not bear a copyright notice to be protected under the statute.
A provision that codifies the doctrine of “fair use,” under which limited copying of copyrighted works without the permission of the owner is allowed for certain teaching and research purposes is of particular importance to teachers and researchers. The relevant portion of the copyright statue provides that the “fair use” of a copyrighted work, including reproduction “for purposes such as criticism, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research” is not an infringement of copyright. The law lists the following factors as the ones to be evaluated in determining whether a particular use of a copyrighted work is a permitted “fair use,” rather than an infringement of the copyright:
- the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
- the nature of the copyrighted work;
- the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole, and
- the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
Although all of these factors will be considered, the last factor is the most important in determining whether a particular use is “fair.” Where a work is available for purchase or license from the copyright owner in the medium desired, copying of all or a significant portion of the work in lieu of purchasing a sufficient number of “authorized” copies would be presumed to be unfair. Where only a small portion of a work is to be copied and the work would not be used if purchase of a sufficient number of authorized copies were required, the intended use is more likely to be found to be fair.
It is the express policy of the institution that substantial portions of works, including textbooks, are not to be copied for use by students or faculty in lieu of purchase, absent the express written permission of the copyright holder.
Textbooks
Textbooks will not be added to the collections unless they have been determined to fill a need not met by comparable materials in the collection.
Gifts
Guidelines for the evaluation of gifts are the same as those for selecting purchased materials. Gifts may be accepted only when they impose no significant limitations on housing, handling or the disposition of duplicate or damaged items.
Inter-Library Loan
The ANU Library does not provide ILL services from external entities.