Regardless of format (articles, eBooks, streaming media, images, etc.) when sharing any online resources with a student or colleague, to avoid potential copyright violations, it is best to provide a link to the resource rather than downloading and sending a copy of the item.
Do not share PDFs of articles, eBooks, etc. unless you own the copyright to the content within.
Share links to protect you and the university from copyright infringement.
Copyright is open to legal interpretation, there are no absolute standards. The guidelines below are generally accepted in practice. It is always safest to share links to information than to make copies and disseminate it other ways.
All library resources with few exceptions, allow you to link directly to a result for sharing purposes.
When sharing library content make sure you are providing the persistent link, sometimes known as a permalink, persistent URL, or stable URL. This will ensure the link remains active and accessible for the foreseeable future. Most of the time you cannot use the URL in your browser address bar. This is known as session link. This link will stop working once the session times out.
Most library resources provide a persistent link option as one the options from the results page. For more information on persistent links visit: https://library.fdu.edu/links
Once you have the persistent link you will need to verify it is accessible for students both on and off campus. To do so you will need to add a proxy prefix to the link. This prefix lets the vendor know off campus users are affiliated with FDU and will redirect them to the FDU login before providing them access to a resource. Without this prefix off campus resources have no way of knowing who is clicking on their link.
Some library resources automatically apply the proxy prefix. You can find a list of these resources here under the Smart Linking heading.
If a link already starts with https://libaccess.fdu.edu/login?url= like in the example below from Films on Demand, then it has been proxied and should work on and off campus.
You can copy a link from any library resource and use the link generator below to create a link which will work on and off campus.
It is always a good idea to test the link before sending it to someone else.
You can share links to any freely available content on the open web as long as you feel the content of the link is legitimate, i.e. not an illegal copy or coming from a questionable site. When in doubt, the library can help investigate a site to determine if the resource is legitimate.
For most information you find on the open web the URL in your browser's address bar serves as the persistent link. Keep in mind if you are accessing content you have a personal subscription to, the link will most likely be specific to you and you probably should not be sharing it in the first place.
Be aware some sites on the open web will give you limited preview access to their articles, they seem like they are accessible to everyone but the site then cuts access off after a proscribed number of views. These can be problematic and should not be relied upon.
For example: Without a subscription the New York Times will provide you 5 free article views per month.
Open web resources do not require any sort of manipulation to be available on or off campus.
Is the resource a library resource or is it coming from the open web?
Library Resource
____ Locate the persistent link.
____ Make sure the link is accessible from off campus by adding a proxy prefix.
____ Test the link.
Open Web
____ Is the resource legitimate? i.e. not an illegal copy of a textbook.
____ Is the resource truly freely available or is it only a free sample?
If you are using an eBook from the library as one of your course texts please make sure to check the title is available for multiple users. The vast majority of our titles are available with unlimited access however there are still a few thousand with limited user access, such as one viewer at a time.
To determine if a book's access level you can look at the book's record. It will list its access level either under Availability or Concurrent User Level.
Example of an unlimited access title.
Example of a limited access title.
If you believe the title will have significant use, i.e. it's a core text for your course, we can investigate increasing the user level if it is possible. Please contact Rob Wolf (wolfrd@fdu.edu).
