Copyright Guide for Faculty and Staff

What is the Course Readings Service?

The Course Readings Service helps you connect your students with course readings and other course content in a cost effective, environmentally friendly, copyright-compliant and easily accessible manner.

How can I use the Course Readings Service?

Send your syllabus or course readings list to the Copyright Office. We’ll review it, and provide you with options from our licensed content, Open Access content, or copies that fall under fair dealing. If permission is required, we’ll help you get it.  

The Details

Here’s how our process works:

• First, we determine if your chosen material is available through licensed content via our library subscriptions
• If not, we then consider: is it available through Open Access, or Creative Commons?
• If not: is it eligible for an educational exception in the Copyright Act (fair dealing)?
• Is a permission to use it required? If so, we’ll help you obtain it.
   

A key factor is often where the material is being taken from. We can make suggestions on linking to databases and websites, to help you fully take advantage of the many resources available for classroom use.

Have us at your next Departmental meeting or book a classroom session! We can present on a variety of topics, some of which we occasionally offer as webinars. Previous sessions have covered:

• Copyright Basics
• Fair Dealing & Copyright in Canada
• Films and Online Courses

Custom sessions are also available! Contact us at copyright@smu.ca to discuss your options or book a session.