Acceptable use of online resources

Leddy Library contracts with publishers and other vendors to provide University of Windsor faculty, students, and staff with various types of online resources (e.g., journals, books, indexes, etc.).

The license agreements restrict access to online resources to authorized users. In most cases, only current University of Windsor faculty, students, and staff can access these resources. Most of these resources can also be accessed by on-campus visitors using one of the computer workstations in the library.

These agreements also set out acceptable and unacceptable uses of the library’s online 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 losing access to a given resource for the entire University of Windsor community.

Copyright law provides further rights for educational and research use under fair dealing exceptions. Contract language can, however, conflict with these exceptions. The library supports researchers and students in understanding and applying these exceptions. 

Policy statement

Users of library online resources must adhere to the following general guidelines, along with license terms specific to the resource, to avoid improper use.

Generally acceptable use

  • Search, view, and retrieve content for non-commercial, personal, or academic purposes.
  • Download, print, copy, or temporarily store reasonable amounts or parts of the resource for non-commercial personal use.
  • Share content with other University of Windsor faculty, staff and students (between individuals, for personal use, not distribution to classes or committees).
  • Post links to specific content in such a way that it is available only to other authorized users.

Generally unacceptable use

  • Use the online resources for commercial purposes or for providing paid services.
  • Systematic or substantial printing, copying or downloading (e.g., such as entire journal issues or books); including use of any crawling or replicating software.
  • Share login information with anyone.
  • Share licensed content with people outside of the university community.
  • Upload licensed content to third-party platforms, including generative artificial intelligence tools such as Chat GPT. 
  • Modify or alter the content of licensed resources in any way.
Specific license conditions may be shown on the website of a given online 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.

Application and scope

This policy applies to all users of the library’s online resources, including faculty, students, staff, community members, and affiliated users.

Definitions

  • Authorized users: Groups of people defined in a license agreement as having access to the resource. Typically, currently registered students, faculty, and staff of the University of Windsor, along with walk-in users of the library’s computer workstations. In some cases, alumni are also authorized users.
  • Online resources: Also known as “electronic resources”, these are information resources that the library licenses on behalf of the university. This includes materials such as electronic journals, electronic books, abstract and citation indexes, databases of videos, primary sources, and other objects.
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