Access, use, and reproduction of the electronic journals, databases, and other resources made available through the Grinnell College Libraries are governed by contracts or license agreements between the College and publishers or third parties. In many cases, license agreements impose greater restrictions on use than does copyright law, and these terms may also limit uses of non-copyrighted material. Members of the Grinnell College community are expected to make reasonable and good faith efforts to comply with the terms of these agreements.
In most cases, use of these resources outside Burling Library or the Science Library is limited to current students, faculty, and staff of the College. Others are welcome to use these resources within Burling and the Science Library.
In using licensed electronic resources, all users should:
- Limit uses to non-commercial, educational, or personal research purposes;
- Safeguard institutional access to resources by not sharing your network user name and password.
In general, users may:
- Print, download or quote limited amounts of information (with proper attribution);
- Copy an article for your personal use in teaching or research;
- Create a link to a journal article on a publisher or aggregator web site.
Users may not:
- Systematically download large amounts of information (e.g., download all articles in a journal issue; engage in large-scale downloading from licensed resources to create large databases);
- Post a copy of a published article to another computer (e.g., a Blackboard site, a departmental web site, or an association or commercial web site);
- Distribute copies of material to individuals or groups outside Grinnell College, unless the license for the resource specifically allows it;
- Sell or distribute articles to individuals, institutions, or organizations for commercial purposes.
Users should be aware that publishers monitor use levels of electronic resources to verify compliance with licensing agreements. Breach of license by a single user may enable the publisher to suspend the College's access without warning.
Users are accountable for respecting these guidelines as described in the Grinnell College Academic Computer Use Policy.