Do libraries keep copies of scans created as part of interlibrary loan?

I have put in interlibrary loan requests for obscure old articles and been thrilled to quickly receive scans of the articles delivered to me over the web. I was curious to know if any participating libraries are using this as a process to build digitized collections. It seems like a great way to get materials that researchers are actually requesting. I would be interested to know if libraries are keeping these scans and what kinds of policies different libraries have in place for them.

Trevor Owens

digitization
interlibrary-loan
research-support

Comments

foggyone: Not an ILL expert, but I'm pretty sure you'd quickly run into copyright issues with something like this.

Answer by dsalo

Anecdata: when I was in charge of the University of Wisconsin's institutional repository, scans of local theses requested via interlibrary loan came to the IR. If rights could be cleared, they went into a collection open to public view; if not, a closed collection. This was a win for ILL as well, as theses requested once tend to be requested again -- the IR eliminated the need to rescan theses.

Theses are a special case, though. In general, libraries labor under very strait limitations on scans for ILL, and some publishers are trying their hardest to limit electronic ILL further.

You may be interested in JSTOR's decision to open access to clearly and obviously public-domain articles in their archive.

Comments

Trevor Owens: Makes sense, but it is really too bad. In my case, I was requesting articles about Marie Curie from before she visited the US in 1921, so in theory, all out of rights. All stuff I looked up in readers guide retrospective. Come to think of it, I have all those scans... wonder if I should upload them to the Internet Archive :)
dsalo: Part of the problem is that scans for ILL purposes are quick-and-dirty, not what libraries consider "preservation quality." Ergo there usually isn't a pipeline between ILL and digital collections. At least sometimes, special collections is a different story; rare materials may be digitized to high standards and kept in local digital collections when rights make that possible.
Trevor Owens: Gotcha, in any event, for most uses a quick-and-dirty scan is just as good as a super high quality one. In my case, and most other researchers cases, the text and images were legible, not something I would print and hang on my wall, but everything I needed to read the doc.

Answer by Tatjana Heuser

We have a policy of not keeping these scans, because of possible copyright matters, since a thorough check to find out if the material was still under copyright limitations or not would exceed the possible time saved on later requests.

We do have a digital scan service which does check copyright issues and, if the result is "all green lights" scans and archives the book requested electronically. This service (called eod, eBooks on Demand) is based on the books2ebooks EU project.

Comments

Answer by Ashley Nunn

Where I work, we do not keep copies of things that are scanned into the computer - once they are scanned and sent, the files disappear. This is due to copyright issues - while we have the rights to send this particular article/chapter/thesis to you, we may not have the rights to have it in an online database.

One exception to this is anything that was printed first (from a specific database, or from microfilm, etc, or photocopied from a journal or book) - these things get kept in paper copy for a couple of months, but this is only in case a patron or an institution requests a resend of a particular item - they are not used for any other purpose.

Comments

Answer by David Hansen

Section 108(d) and 108(e) of the Copyright act (i.e., the exceptions & limitations on copyright that allow for things like library reproduction for ILL) require that, to fall within those specific exceptions, the copy that is made must become the property of the requesting user. In generally, this would mean that the copies could not be retained by the library for other uses. Other exceptions, such as fair use may justify retention of those copies.

Comments

Answer by MGallinger

At the Williamsburg Foundation Rockefeller Library, customer requested images (including images requested via ILL) of the Special Collections items became part of the digital collection. We would always take a preservation quality image and then create a derivative that suited the needs of the user. It also was a factor in determining the digitization efforts for the future -- completing the imaging on a book, map or other materials became one of the priorities for determining the digitization schedule. Copyright was not typically an issue for the Special Collections materials, and even where it was, we kept the files due to the fragile nature of the physical materials.