Photocopying articles from periodicals or pages from books makes information more easily accessible. If the resource centre offers a photocopying service, the resource centre budget needs to include photocopier maintenance and accessories such as paper and toner (see Section 2.3: Financial planning).
It is important to be aware of copyright laws, which allow only a few pages to be photocopied unless permission is given. Some publishers are happy for their materials to be photocopied or adapted for education and training without being asked permission. If so, they always state this clearly in the publication. It can be useful to add copyright details to notes about the publication in the catalogue, so that these are known before the material is taken off the shelf.
It is best to check about copyright in the country concerned. The national library usually has this information. However, the following can usually be photocopied:
- one article in an issue of a periodical (such as a newsletter or journal)
- one chapter of a book, or 10 per cent of the publication, whichever is less
- no videos, unless permission is given
- no computer software, unless permission is given (except to make a single security backup)
- a small number of records from a commercial bibliographic database such as Medline or POPLINE, either to print and post, or to e-mail the information to a user who cannot visit the resource centre.
Example of permission for reproduction
