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Keep Learning with Kellar Library

A guide helping students and faculty of BMATS to understand how Kellar Library is responding during the Coronavirus Pandemic and the resources and services that are available to students during this time,

What is Scan and Deliver?

Obtain portions of print books, print journal articles, archival materials, or anything that can be scanned so that you can have high-quality theological resources delivered straight to your email inbox!

Suggestions for Your Research

Here are some suggestions for how you can maximize this service:

  • Studying a passage of Scripture: If you are studying Romans 9, we can scan the "Romans 9" section of several different print Bible Commentaries.
  • Studying a book of the Bible: We can scan the introduction to several Bible Commentaries.
  • Studying a topic such as "Imprecatory Psalms": We can scan the portions of several texts which discuss this topic, specifically.
  • Researching "Marriage Counseling": We can compile sections from several different sources.
  • Biography: After investigating the major details of a figure's life, we can compile scans from several sources, ie. "The Downgrade Controversy" in the life of Charles Spurgeon.
  • Soteriology, or any other topic in systematic theology: There are many volumes of systematic theology from which we can take scans covering this subject.

A Note on Copyright and Fair Use

The Copyright Act provides that the "fair use of a copyrighted work for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright." Not all educational uses are fair use. Four factors are considered in determining whether the use of a work is a fair use:

  • the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposesCertain types of uses typically favor fair use, including teaching, research, scholarship, criticism, news reporting and parody. Also favoring fair use are uses that transform the copyrighted work for a new purpose, rather than pure copying. 
  • the nature of the copyrighted workCreative and fiction-based copyrighted works are given greater protection than works of a factual or non-fiction nature. Similarly, non-published works are given greater protection than published works.
  • the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and The smaller the portion of a work used, the more likely the use is a fair use. Conversely, use of a substantial portion of a work or the heart of a work is less likely to be considered fair use.
  • the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted workUse of a work that replaces the need for others to purchase or license the work, especially if the work is easily purchased or licensed, will weigh against fair use. Making just a few copies, available to only a limited number of people, is likely to weigh in favor of fair use.

Fair Use is decided on a case-by-case basis. 

COVID-19 and Fair Use

A number of librarians specializing in copyright law have been at work deciding how Copyright law and the "fair use" doctrine apply during the COVID-19 outbreak. They have released a statement that indicates that they believe that we have some leeway in what we can supply to students by way of digital copies of copyrighted material.