How to Check Licences of Library Electronic Resources

Electronic Resources at Toronto Metropolitan University are licenced by TMU Libraries. The most common types of course readings that we deliver to students at TMU are:

• Articles from E-journals
• Chapters from E-books

Many resources allow redistribution of this material through a persistent or stable link that can be included in your D2L course.  Occasionally the licence terms may also allow you to post a PDF article or book section to your D2L shell.   To determine how you can use these resources in your D2L course, you will need to check what our licences allow you to do before you post the material.

Guidelines for the Use of Electronic Resources

Generally Allowed

• Using persistent links to provide access to journal articles and e-books from within D2L. These can be placed into your D2L shell by library staff using the Ares Course Reading system.
• Incorporating images taken from the resources into presentations projected in the classroom.
• Giving students citations for materials so they can locate it
in the library.
• E-mailing a link to an article to an individual student or class.

Generally Not Allowed

• Posting digital copies (for example, PDF copies) of journal articles and e-books into your D2L course
• Using images from the resources in presentations uploaded to D2L, or posting images directly to D2L
• Printing and handing out journal articles in the classroom.
• E-mailing an article to an individual student or class.

Articles from Journals

The Omni Search tool contains information that indicates how you can use articles from a particular journal.  It will tell you if you can post a pdf in your course shell or if you need to use a persistent link.  Check the License Look-up Tutorial to learn how to search Omni to find out how you can deliver electronic journal resources to your students.

Things to note:

• Some journals only allow you to redistribute material through a persistent or stable link. (Link is Green in the Look-up Tool)
• Occasionally the licence terms allow you to post a PDF of an article to your D2L shell. (CMS is Green in the Look-up Tool)
• A few e-journals do not allow any redistribution of classroom use from their journal database (Eg. Harvard Business Review).  (Link is marked Red in the Look-up Tool). For these, you can contact Library E-reserves for copyright checking.