As a student, teacher or researcher at UNNC you have access to many electronic journals, books and databases through the Library. You may have found content by doing an internet search but access is allowed due to university subscriptions and licence agreements with suppliers and publishers. The licences govern how you can use and copy the resources.

Although licences can vary some general guidelines are:

  • Use of resources is for personal educational purposes only. to support your study or research.
  • Use does not extend to any commercial use. 
  • The resources must not be used during work placements for the benefit of the host organisation, or to undertake paid research for an external institution.
  • Access to resources is normally via your university account. You must not share your login with anyone else.
  • You can normally download, email, or print one copy of a limited amount (which will vary between publishers) for your own personal use. You should not download works in their entirety, or systematically.
  • Making multiple copies is not allowed.
  • For ebooks the amount that you can download, or print varies from one publisher and title to another. This information is usually displayed when you use each book.
  • You must not remove, obscure or alter any copyright information that appears on materials you download.
  • You may not share any material with unauthorised users i.e. non-members of UNNC. Most licences do not permit you to share downloaded copies (e.g. PDFs of journal articles) with other students, or staff. This means you should not email, or post online (even in secure intranets, or Moodle) copies for others to access. Only if it is expressly permitted in a resource licence can you do this.
  • If you want to recommend or share material you should provide a link to the resource itself. That way other staff and students can access it themselves.
  • To link to journal articles look for a stable or persistent link, often called a DOI. These links are usually short and will always point to the article. Direct links to ebooks and journal articles can easily be provided to students via online reading lists.