Library:Help for Faculty/Licensed Materials

Electronic Materials licensed by UBC Library

The Library licenses many electronic resources from publishers, such as ebooks, ejournals, image databases and streaming media. The license (or contract) determines how that material may be used, and some licenses may restrict the making or dissemination of copies and limit fair dealing rights. If the terms of a licence prohibit uses that would otherwise be permitted by an exception in the Copyright Act, then the terms of the licence apply.

Each license for each resource has a different set of permitted uses. Before sharing one of these resources with your students, you will need to ensure that you are permitted to do so in the manner you intend. For example, one journal may permit you to upload an article, book chapter, image, map, media clip etc. into your online course or professional webpage while another may require that you provide your students with a link to the item instead. When in doubt, provide students with a link. See below for information on how to provide students with stable/permanent links to licensed materials.

License Information Database

"The University of British Columbia licenses many electronic resources for its staff, faculty, and current students including indexes, databases, e-journals, and e-books. Access to these resources is governed by contractual agreements (license agreements) with resource providers.....Violations of our license terms by anyone can result in the loss of access to that resource for the entire university community." (License Information, UBC Library)

To avoid violating the University's license agreements, please check the permitted uses for the Library's License Information database to see the permitted uses granted by each of the Library's content providers, i.e, the publisher or database host that provides the item(s) you wish to share.

• To determine the permitted uses of a specific journal's content:
  • click the "Journals" tab in the search box on the Library Homepage
  • type in the title of the journal you are searching for
  • on the results screen, locate the relevant journal
  • click on the "permitted uses" button beside the journal name - this will take you to a full explanation of the permitted uses for that particular journal's content.

• NOTE: Many journals are obtained as part of a large package and thus may not be found in the License Information database under their individual titles.
  • For further assistance you can contact your Subject Liaison Librarian or E-Journal Help.

Creating Permanent Links to Articles

Most license agreements permit you to provide a Persistent Link (also known as PURLS, Permalinks, Static Links, and/or Stable URLs) that will take your students to the licensed version of the article. You can use the Library's Course Reserve Software via Canvas to create persistent links to required readings or you can create your own links to individual resources.

• To learn more about using Library course reserves in Canvas, see our guide to Course Reserves.

• For instructions on creating links to Library resources, visit: Linking to Resources