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CLA Scanning Licence: Checking for digital works

Before you scan any item under the CLA Scanning Licence, you need to carry out a number of checks including finding out if there is an existing digital version of the work that is available to use.

If you want to scan an item and produce a digital version for use within WebCT or a PowerPoint presentation under the terms of the CLA Scanning Licence then certain terms and conditions have to be met.

Before going any further you should check whether or not the students already have access to a digital version via the various services that Library Services provides.

Here are the places you should check:

For eBooks:

Although TalisPrism will now give direct access to most of the eBooks available, it is also worth checking via the eLibrary service.

Once logged in, select the Find Resource facility. Then click on the ‘Locate’ tab and then select your subject area from the drop down menu for Category, and then eBooks from the drop-down list for Type.

You can then systematically connect to those listed as being of type ‘eBook’ (such as ebrary) using the ‘Search in Resource’ facility (click on the ‘magnifying glass’ icon at the end of the relevant line) to check for the title(s) of interest.

For eJournals

Currently some journals and law reports, that are available within Lexis Nexis, Lawtel and Westlaw, do not appear when searching via the eJournals list. So if you are searching for a legal journal or law report you will need to check these databases separately to see if the item is already available electronically.

In the event of you locating an electronic version of the work to which the University doesn’t subscribe, as long as the University owns a printed copy and the other conditions are satisfied, you can go ahead and scan the extract you require provided that you note on the Record Sheet (DOC) the reason for opting to scan (rather than subscribe to the existing digital version). A line on the Record Sheet must be completed for every item scanned.

The scanning (rather than subscribing) can also be carried out if there are technical reasons for not using the existing digital version e.g. an incompatible format problem.

Once you have determined that there isn’t a suitable digital version available, you should then check whether or not the item is excluded from the scheme and then whether or not the University owns a copy.

Please see the other guidance notes and web pages on how to conduct those checks.

Creative Commons Licence
CLA Scanning Licence - Copyright Support by University of Birmingham, Library Services is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at www.library.bham.ac.uk.