Skip to Main Content

Copyright: Licensed Content for the Classroom

A guide to inform faculty and students about copyright, fair use, and more.

Licensing content doesn't always mean purchasing content. Licensing simply means that a creator indicated the extent to which their content can be accessed, used, modified, or distributed.

Some ways that you might use licensed content in your course might be including materials that have a Creative Commons license, working with Follett to create a reader for your students, or collaborating with Foley Library.

That's right, the Library can license or contract content for use!

When considering what content to include in your course, think about:

  • Using permalinks to library content instead of distributing digital copies.

  • Contacting the library to ask if it's possible to purchase licensed content, including e-books and streaming films.

  • Asking the library about the permissions included in their licensed content, and if unlimited users, simultaneous users, printing, or other types of use are allowed.

Before you rely on a Fair Use argument to incorporate materials in your teaching, we suggest exploring the resources that Foley Library has already licensed for use on campus to see the material is already licensed or if an alternate options are under license.

  • Open Resources
    • A broad term used to refer to any type of resource freely available to the public.
    • Includes items that are in the Public Domain and materials that have been made available through limited and non-exclusive copyright licenses such as those offered by the Creative Commons.
    • May be limitations on how they can be used, and whether they can be modified, remixed, or redistributed.
  • Open Access (OA)
    • A designation used to identify scholarly works that have been published with free and unrestricted online access
    • Anyone can read, download, and share these works without cost.
    • Limitations on whether the material can modified or redistributed without permission may exist.
  • Open License
    • A type of license that outlines permissions to access, use, modify, and redistribute with limited restrictions.
    • Creative Commons, MIT License, Open Design licenses, and GNU General Public Licenses are examples of different kinds of open licenses.
  • Open Educational Resources (OERs)
    • A subset of resources made freely available for access and openly licensed for use, reuse, remixing, and distribution (or some combination thereof).

Locating Licensed and Open Content

To find licensed Ebooks in the Foley Library collection, select Foley eResources in the Advanced Search box:

Screenshot of Foley Library Advanced Search, Foley eResources button highlighted.

 

Then use the Refine my results facets to select Books under Resource Type.

Screenshot of records returned with Resource Type facet "Book" highlighted.

 

Once you identify the material you want to use, you can check the license terms within the item's record.

Screenshot of link to license on Foley Catalot item record.

 

License details may include information on whether materials can be linked via a permalink, used in course packs, distributed digitally, downloaded, printed, number and type of authorized users, and more.

Screenshot of item record with licensing information visible.

 

Library Databases:

Foley Center Library's database content is licensed specifically for classroom instruction, research, and teaching. Notably, most of our databases provide permalinks, enabling you to incorporate articles, videos, and music directly into your Canvas courses.

persistent link, also known as a permalink, is an URL that connects directly to a specific full-text article in a library database or electronic journal subscription. When students click a permalink, they will need to log in with their Gonzaga username and password to access the linked content. 

Locating Content:

Use these resources to locate licensed library content:

Persistent Links:

If you copy a database link from your Internet browser into Canvas, that link will eventually stop working because it is a dynamic, non-static link. To eliminate this problem, most database companies now offer persistent links for their articles. Persistent links (also known as permalinks) are stable links that will consistently take students to a particular full-text article in a library database.

Note that to ensure access by off-campus users, all persistent links should include proxy information in the first segment of the URL:

https://gonzaga.idm.oclc.org/login?url=

For example, if you wanted to link to the following persistent URL (noted in bold) in Canvas, then it should look like this:

https://gonzaga.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=148736833&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Some databases include the proxy URL, others do not - so you may need to copy and paste the proxy URL in front of the persistent link. For additional information about permalinks and library resources, please see this guide

Need Help?

Your Liaison Librarian is a valuable resource for finding and utilizing library materials. They can provide expert assistance in locating articles in various databases, e-journals, and streaming video and audio resources.

Additionally, they can guide you on how to locate permalinks to library content which you can add to your Canvas course.

Finally, Gonzaga's Department of Instructional Delivery and Design can provide instructions on how to embed permalinks into your Canvas Course. 

Multimedia

Audio

Images

Open educational resources (OER) are teaching, learning, and research materials that are either in the public domain or have been released under an open license. This means that anyone can freely access, use, modify, and share the materials without having to pay for permission or credits. OERs can be used in a variety of settings, including universities and libraries.

Accessibility | Proxy Logout