Statement on Appropriate Use of Electronic Resources

The licensed electronic resources made available by the University Library are for research, instruction, and related activities of current University of Michigan faculty, staff, students and other authorized users. U.S. Copyright Law (including the protections of “fair use”) and contractual license agreements govern the access, use, and reproduction of these resources. In general, authorized users may access such resources for noncommercial, educational, scholarly and research purposes.

Prohibited actions generally include:

• Sharing of passwords or authorized access codes
• Large-scale systematic downloading of articles or other information
• Use of robots, spiders or intelligent agents to access, search and/or systematically download content
• Posting copyrighted materials on a publicly accessible web site
• Resale or commercial exploitation of licensed information

Please be aware

1. Sharing an access password with unauthorized users — including family, friends, or co-workers — may result in suspension or revocation of library privileges. Non-affiliated users may, however, access most electronic library resources from computer terminals in a campus library.
2. Downloading entire issues of electronic journals, or attempting to create large databases from bibliographic files, is generally prohibited by publisher license agreements. Systematic downloading of content— manually or with specialized software— is detectable by publishers and traceable to specific computer addresses. While such actions are detectable and traceable to specific computers, the library is very careful to adhere to the tenets of the Library Privacy Statement.
3. Engaging in actions intended to circumvent or defeat access control mechanisms of the library or information provider may result in revocation of library privileges and other campus or civil disciplinary measures.
4. Sharing proprietary or client software connected to information resources, such as that used to analyze spatial data or search and retrieve texts, is also prohibited under the terms of academic licenses.

These policies and guidelines are in conformance with ITS policies for responsible IT use and other campus policies governing use of computing networks. Questions about the appropriate use of licensed information resources may be directed to library.collections@umich.edu.