Database Usage Guidelines

University of Washington Libraries Databases:

The University of Washington Libraries contracts with many vendors and publishers to provide users with thousands of electronic resources, in the form of databases, costing millions of dollars per year. These resources are for the use of currently-enrolled UW students and currently employed UW faculty and staff.

In addition to paying for these resources, the Libraries typically negotiates license agreements that stipulate how and by whom they may be used. If license terms are violated by anyone, licensors usually have the right to temporarily suspend access for the entire university community. In some cases, licenses can be permanently revoked.

Guidelines:

Usually Acceptable:

Making limited print or electronic copies (such as single articles);
Using databases for personal, instructional or research needs;
Sharing information from databases with UW faculty, staff and students;
Posting links to specific content.

Usually Not Acceptable:

Systematic or substantial printing, copying or downloading (such as entire journal issues or books);
Selling or re-distributing content, or providing it to an employer;
Sharing database content or services with people other than UW faculty, staff and students;
Posting actual content or articles to web sites or listservs;
Modifying, altering, or creating derivative works from UW-licensed databases.

Grey Areas:

Some resources allow inclusion for electronic reserves, course packs, and multiple copies for classroom use and interlibrary lending. Others explicitly forbid one or more of these activities.

Finally:

Always acknowledge your source for any published or unpublished document when you use data found in electronic resources. For guidelines to citing sources, see the Foster Business Library's

Citing Internet Resources

If you have questions about a particular resource or these guidelines, please e-mail the UW Libraries' Collection Management Services.

For more information, see UW Computing and Communications Knowing the Rules, Ethics in Computer and Network Use, and Copyright Issues.

29 August 2003; updated 25 March 2005. Peter Stevens, Business Librarian, stevens@u.washington.edu. Campus Box 353224.

Content for this webpage was obtained largely from the untitled Electronic Do's and Don'ts.