Request permission from staff for any type of copying.
Copying of certain materials may be prohibited because of restrictions imposed by donors, the physical condition, value of materials, or intellectual property reasons.
The following types of copies can be made for charges indicated on the fee schedule.
Only staff members may copy Rare Books materials. Please request copies of Rare Books materials at the reference desk.
Other types of loose documents, photographs, and bound volumes may be copied on self-service copiers or on the public scanning terminal.
However, patrons must always request permission to make copies.
Because of preservation concerns and other restrictions, we generally do not permit researchers to bring in their own scanning or audio-visual copying equipment to do copy work. However, we may permit patrons to use their own digital cameras to make copies of large format or other materials that are difficult to scan safely.
Only Special Collections materials will be scanned on the Special Collections Library scanner. Nothing will be scanned that is copyright protected beyond the normal "fair use" guidelines. Scans requiring use of a scanner outside of Special Collections (i.e. Preservation) will be subject to the workflow of that unit and their pricing structures.
Criteria for using the scanner will be the same as criteria for photocopying (i.e. fragility of item, amount of book curve, wear). Preservation concerns will dictate whether an item may be scanned.
Scanning can be saved to a disk, flash drive, personal Penn State drive, or emailed to the user.
There will be 2 types of scans: Reference Scan at under 150 dpi resolution and Publication Quality at between 151 and 300 dpi.
As with photographs or photocopies, all commercial use and "one time only" requirements will still be in effect.
The preferred format for citing Special Collections materials is:
Name of the Collection or group of records,
Span dates of the collection or group of records,
Manuscript or record group, or accession number,
Unit within Special Collections holding the materials,
"Special Collections Library, University Libraries, Pennsylvania State University."
Example: The “A Few Good Women" Oral History Collection, 1938-2000, MGN 984, Penn State University Archives, Special Collections Library, University Libraries, Pennsylvania State University.
Patrons should obtain advice from staff on the availability of unpublished materials for publication and relevant application of copyright law, literary property rights, and laws of libel.
