Recently Asked Questions (RAQs)

Faculty and students sometimes advise each other to upload articles downloaded from library-licensed databases into AI tools for summarization, or for study purposes, such as generating study questions and dialogs about the materials. These are not public domain articles that happened to be indexed in a library database.

Many of our faculty have access to ChatGPT EDU, which creates a "walled garden" around the files, preventing them from being used for AI training and treating them as institutional data. However, our students do not yet have access to the EDU account. In addition, many students and faculty are experimenting widely with other free AI tools on the Internet and are most likely uploading all types of files. I realize we cannot stop all of this, but if we have a statement to let library patrons know the proper uses, we are hopefully at least covering our obligations here.

Could you suggest a reasonable policy statement that libraries could publicize to their patrons regarding this issue to help ensure that patrons respect author and publisher rights and that libraries will not end up in legal trouble down the road?

One of our member libraries has asked me the following question:

"We'd like to create an online catalog of drone pictures of our area. What do we need to consider? We know people are posting these pictures on Facebook, and we'd like to request permission to collect them all in a catalog on our website. Please let me know any technical issues or legalities we need to keep in mind. I think it's a good idea, but I don't know exactly how to implement it."

Are drone pictures copyright free as they are in other people's properties and cover large areas? Is it legal to post drone pictures without permission?

Thanks for any thoughts on this topic!

Our archive was part of a regional project to initiate, scan, and make available church records from predominantly African American churches within a city. As part of this project, student/graduate assistants went to the particular churches, scanned the historical records as digital files, and provided those files to [our archive] for public access.

My question is in regards to photographs taken of minors and the restrictions for retention and online display. I would not have selected those particular items for retention, but because I was not on-site during the scanning, I have the files as part of the larger record (church programs, organizational records, committees, etc.). We have signed permissions from the church administration for online access and display of their records. In some cases the photographs are from over 20-40 years ago, in some cases they're much more recent. They're taken at private church events, Sunday school classes/activities, and public events--some as part of photo albums and some as individual files.

I'm struggling with how to treat these photographs and any associated records when I know they display minors. Any advice or direction would be greatly appreciated.

ResearchGate is often a place individuals will go to snag PDFs which are typically provided by authors, not publishers. It refers to itself as a community and network for researchers to share and discuss their research with others from around the globe. ResearchGate explicitly states that they are not liable for any copyright infringement, and that the responsibility rests with the individual; it is entirely up to the individual to either post the PDF to be downloaded freely, or to send the PDF to individuals upon request.

I have multiple questions surrounding the use of ResearchGate. Number one, should libraries be directing individuals to ResearchGate to ask authors for copies of their articles? Number two, should our document delivery service be providing copies of PDFs from ResearchGate to our library patrons? I am personally very hesitant to refer anyone to ResearchGate as I find most faculty researchers are not aware of who truly holds the copyright to their published articles. Thank you!

Recently, our library has been given a collection of photographs that were previously on display in a local business location. These are photos of the customers of the business, many are children. These photos span several decades and are important to many. 

We would like to digitize these photos and make them available via the internet because we believe these to be of sentimental, cultural, historical and academic value to our region and beyond.

The photos were given to our library by the business that had previously displayed them and also produced the photos. What are the issues of rights and permissions raised by making these images freely available online, especially given that many of those in the photos are children? Thanks for your help.