Appropriate Use of Electronic Resources

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Most electronic resources are governed by license agreements that limit use to the St. John’s community or to individuals who are physically present at the St. John’s University Libraries. Each user is responsible for ensuring that he or she uses these products only for non-commercial, educational, scholarly or research use without systematically downloading, distributing, or retaining indefinitely substantial portions of information. The use of software such as scripts, agents, or robots, is prohibited and may result in loss of access to these resources for the entire St. John’s community.

The licensed electronic resources made available by the St. John’s University Libraries are for the personal, research, scholarly, or instructional activities of current St. John’s University faculty, staff, students and other authorized users. Copyright Law (including the protections of "fair use") and contractual license agreements govern the access, use, and reproduction of these resources. Permitted actions generally include: downloading, temporarily storing, or printing discrete reasonable portions of the materials. Prohibited actions generally include: Sharing of passwords or authorized access codes, systematic downloading of significant portions of the materials, posting copyrighted materials on a publicly accessible website, or commercial exploitation of the licensed information.

Please Be Aware:

  • Sharing an access password with unauthorized users - including family, friends, or co-workers - may result in suspension or revocation of library privileges. Non-affiliated users may, however, access most electronic library resources from workstations in most St. John’s University Library locations.
  • Downloading entire issues of electronic journals, several sequential chapters in online books, or attempting to create large databases from bibliographic files, is generally prohibited by license agreements. Systematic downloading of content - manually or with specialized software - is detectable by information providers and may result in loss of that information service to the relevant computer addresses or the entire St. John’s University community.
  • Engaging in actions intended to circumvent or defeat access control mechanisms of the Libraries or information provider may result in revocation of library privileges and other campus or civil disciplinary measures.
  • Sharing proprietary or client software connected to information resources, such as that used to analyze spatial data or search and retrieve texts, is also prohibited under the terms of academic licenses.
  • Each licensed product may have more specific or additional permissions or prohibitions. In many instances, walk-in users (individuals who are physically present on the St. John’s campuses and who are not St. John’s faculty, students, and staff) are restricted in the amount of material they may download or print by the specific agreement for a license.

This statement is in conformance with the St. John’s University Computer and Network Use Policy.

Questions about the appropriate use of licensed information resources may be directed to collections@stjohns.edu.