Acceptable Use of Electronic Resources

Queen's University Library has signed license agreements with vendors and publishers to provide Queen's University students, faculty, and staff with access to thousands of electronic resources (databases, e-journals, e-books, data, etc.) to support their teaching, learning, and research activities.

These license agreements restrict access to the electronic resources to authorized users: generally, current Queen's University students, faculty, and staff, and on-site users of the libraries. [Off-campus (remote) use is restricted to current Queen's students and to current or retired Queen's faculty and staff.]

The agreements also set out acceptable and unacceptable uses of the electronic resources by authorized users. Users who breach license agreements may lose access to resources and may face other disciplinary or legal consequences. Misuse may also result in loss of access to a given resource for the entire Queen's University community.

License conditions may be shown on the web site of a given electronic resource under such headings as "Acceptable Use", "Conditions of Use", or "Copyright". License conditions may also be indicated on an article saved or printed from a database or online journal.

As a general guide to acceptable use of licensed electronic products, we ask users to observe the following points:

It is Normally Acceptable to:

• Search, view, retrieve, and display content for non-commercial personal, instructional, or academic research needs
• Download, print, copy, or temporarily store reasonable amounts or parts of the resource for non-commercial personal use
• Share content with other current Queen's University faculty, staff, and students
• Post links to specific content in such a way that it is available only to other authorized users

It is Normally NOT Acceptable to:

• Electronic resources provided by the library may not be used for commercial purposes
• Engage in systematic or substantial printing, copying or downloading of content (such as entire journal issues, financial and/or data sets, e-books, etc.)
• Share content or right to access with unauthorized persons or organizations
• Post actual content or articles to web sites or listservs, private (e.g. a corporate intranet) or public
• Modify or alter the content of licensed resources in any way

Also Consult:

• Code of Behaviour for Library Users
• Electronic Information Security Policy Framework