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Faculty

Course Packet Development: What Faculty and TA's Need to Know

UniPrint offers full assistance to faculty at Ohio State in the preparation and development of their multiple source course materials.

We can take your originals and textbooks, get publisher permission, copyright costs, and prepare a course packet to your specifications.

To help faculty and teaching assistants understand the course packet process, please read the methods on how packets are produced. You can pick up hints and tips to get your materials into your students' hands in a timely fashion.

For more information about development of Course Packets at UniPrint, please contact Customer Service at 292-2219.


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Copyright Permission Service

UniPrint offers full assistance to faculty at Ohio State in the preparation and development of their multiple source course materials.

Full copyright and print services are available every quarter to assist in preparation, documentation, and payment to publishers.

Copyright permission is necessary almost every time something is reproduced from an outside source, whether or not the use is for educational purposes. Coincidentally, ascertaining if copyright permission is needed and obtaining permission is a standard part of UniPrint services.

    Some permission guidelines:
  • Please use our new Copyright Permission Request Form
    • to submit your request for permission.
  • Note: You will need Adobe Reader (7.0.5 or higher) to submit it to UniPrint.
  • Permission should be requested each quarter that material is used.
  • If a work is out of print, permission still must be obtained from the rightsholder to reproduce part or all of the work.
  • Educational use is not the only criterion needed to reproduce material without permission.
  • If you are not sure whether copyright permission is needed, UniPrint can provide you with a handout explaining the guidelines and law pertaining to copyright and the "fair use" laws.

The rule of thumb is when in doubt, let UniPrint request permission.

    Information Needed for Course Packets:
  • Professor's name
  • Phone number(s) and e-mail address
  • Course Name and number Number of students
  • Journal/Book title Article/Chapter title Author/Editor
  • Publisher Copyright year Volume/Edition number(s)
  • Page numbers ISBN/ISSN (optional information)

The "Fair Use Law":

    "Fair use" under the U.S. copyright law permits limited use of portions of a copyrighted work without the copyright owner’s permission for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research. Section 107 of the Copyright Act establishes four basic factors to be considered in deciding whether a use constitutes a fair use. These factors are:
  1. The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for non-profit educational purposes;
  2. The nature of the copyrighted work;
  3. The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
  4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. No one factor determines a person’s right to use a copyrighted work without permission.

(This material comes from Questions and Answers on Copyright for the Campus Community, Copyright © 1997, Association of American Publishers, National Association of College Stores, and Software Publishers Association. If you are not sure whether copyright permission is needed, UniPrint can provide you with a handout explaining the guidelines and laws pertaining to copyright and the "fair use" laws. The rule of thumb is when in doubt, let UniPrint request permission.


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Copyright

UniPrint produces approximately 450 course packets a quarter for faculty on the main and regional campuses.

  • Materials Arrive
    As soon as your materials arrive in our centers, they are reviewed for copyrighted material. If they contain published works or journals, they are submitted to our Copyright office to contact the publisher to get the rights to repurpose and print the work as an anthology.
    You will be given a finish date for your materials based on the current quantity of packets waiting to be run.
  • Copyright Free?
    If your materials are deemed to be free of copyrighted works, they go into production on a first come-first served basis.
  • Copyright works in packet?
    Since UniPrint follows strict procedures to protect intellectual property rights, all copyrighted materials should be submitted to the publisher for approval. Your order may be placed on hold pending approval by the publisher. NOTE: This delay can be several days to several weeks.
  • Scanning and Cleanup
    The originals you submit are scanned into digital images, which allows us to clean up dirty pages and realign orientation. Large packets can take up to 6 hours of scanning and cleanup to make ready for printing. Some additional charges may be incurred for intensive document clean-up.Digital originals require almost no effort and can be printed much quicker.
  • Production
    Once prepared, your materials are programmed to your specifications and queued to print. These will be printed in the order they were recieved. These files are then archived for future use.
  • Finishing
    Once printed, the finishing options you have chosen will be completed. Certain types of finishing require more time than others and can contribute to the amount of time until they are made ready for sale.
  • Ready For Sale
    Once the packets are completed according to your order, they are placed on the shelves and ready for sale to students.
    Your personal desk copies and the originals are placed for delivery back to you.

Hints to speed up the production of your packets

    The following guidelines can help speed up your packets and make them ready for sale in the most time effective manner:
  • Bring your materials to be printed 4-6 weeks before the start of the quarter.
  • Use digital originals.
  • Have your copyrighted materials easily available when placing your order.
  • Avoid multiple colored papers in your documents.
  • Choose three-hole drilling and rubber-banding. Most students have binders available to place the materials in.

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Copyright Timeline

It can take anywhere from several days to several weeks to obtain copyright permission.

Because of this, UniPrint has adopted the following policy:

From the day copyright information is submitted, UniPrint allows up to three weeks for holding course packets for permission before production. At the end of three weeks, Copyright Services will either 1) estimate for the pending items in the packet and release it for production, as long as each item is of reasonable length (number of pages of reading compared to number of pages of the work it comes from), or 2) estimate for reasonable items and call you to make a decision on any questionable items. The instructor’s decision may be to a) hold the packet entirely, b) run the packet with the readings that have been granted permission and hold the pending items for later production, or c) omit the pending items completely and only run the granted readings.

Be assured that Copyright Services will contact you regarding any denied or expensive readings at any time. (They will not wait for the three weeks to pass before contacting you about them.) Also, they will confirm approval of a high total copyright cost before releasing the packet.

This is not a guarantee that permission will be obtained for all readings in the packet in three weeks. Rather, it is a timeline of copyright processing and possible release.


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