Faculty and Staff

Effective July 1, 2010, the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) requires institutions that receive federal funding to provide textbook information in the institution’s online schedule of classes, as indicated in the following statement from the HEOA:

PURPOSE AND INTENT—The purpose of this section is to ensure that students have access to affordable course materials by decreasing costs to students and enhancing transparency and disclosure with respect to the selection, purchase, sale, and use of course materials. It is the intent of this section to encourage all of the involved parties, including faculty, students, administrators, institutions of higher education, bookstores, distributors, and publishers, to work together to identify ways to decrease the cost of college textbooks and supplemental materials for students while supporting the academic freedom of faculty members to select high quality course materials for students.

The following information must be provided for each course listed in the schedule.

• ISBN or textbook title, author, publisher, publication date, and edition for all textbooks that are required or recommended
• Contents of coursepacks
• Retail pricing of textbooks and/or coursepacks
• A notice of “No textbooks required,” if applicable
• A notice of “To be determined” if, at the time of publication, instructors and/or textbooks have not yet been determined

The Huntley Bookstore collects and reports textbook information for all of the Claremont Colleges. While students are not required to purchase textbooks from Huntley, faculty and departments should report textbook information to huntleytextbooks@cuc.claremont.edu to ensure CGU’s compliance with the HEOA. When providing textbook information to the Bookstore, be sure to provide all of the following data.

• Semester for which you are providing information
• Campus (CGU)
• Subject and Course catalog number
• Complete name of the instructor

The following information is provided by the Huntley Bookstore in regard to faculty and administrative concerns regarding coursepacks. The Huntley Bookstore is proactively assisting The Claremont Colleges in complying with the requirements of the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) of 2008.

1. What types of materials need to be cleared of copyrights?

• Published and unpublished books
• Articles
• Research papers
• Electronic books and articles
• Online sources, even blogs
• Reviews
• Newspapers
• Magazines

2. Does Huntley make and sell coursepacks or readers?

Yes. The Huntley Bookstore produces and sells several dozen coursepack titles each term.

3. Why should I have Huntley make my coursepack?

The Huntley Bookstore ensures that copyrights are cleared and appropriate payments are made to authors and publishers of those copyrighted materials being used in a coursepack or reader. This process helps indemnify the bookstore, the college or university, and the instructor or department from lawsuits that could be initiated for the potential violation of copyright laws.

4. Why do coursepacks cost so much at The Huntley Bookstore?

Huntley contacts all copyright holders on articles and book excerpts to ensure that the appropriate permissions are obtained and that the required payments are made for the use of intellectual property.

5. Aren’t most coursepacks and readers considered “fair use”?

No. Prior to 1991, it was commonly believed that reproductions–primarily photocopying–for academic coursepacks fell within the educational reproduction portion of fair use. As a result, coursepack anthologies were often compiled and distributed without the permission of the copyright holders. Two court cases–Basics Books Inc. v Kinko’s Graphics Corporation and Princeton University Press v Michigan Document Services–challenged this thinking. Today, coursepacks, which may be a compilation of electronic or photocopied materials, require copyright permissions prior to production and distribution.

6. How can I tell if something is in the public domain?

If you are copying directly from an original source published prior to 1900, the work is most likely in the public domain and you will not need permission to copy it. Any work published or republished after 1900 needs to be researched to determine if it is in the public domain.

7. Do academic electronic coursepacks require copyright permission?

Yes. Many instructors are under the mistaken impression that they do not need to obtain copyright permission for content posted online as an electronic coursepack. E-coursepacks, like their paper-based counterparts, require copyright permission from the copyright holder or its agent. Information sharing sites such as Sakai are not exempt from copyright ownership rights.

8. I have my coursepack or reader printed at the campus copy center and they or the campus student store sell them to students. Is there any problem with this arrangement?

The institution, departments, and individual instructors should be concerned and question whether the local copy center is properly clearing and paying for permissions to print or reproduce the articles and book excerpts used in coursepacks. As part of its contractual agreement with the Claremont University Consortium, The Huntley Bookstore is the exclusive agent for providing course materials and supplies, including books and coursepacks, to the Claremont Colleges. Though students can certainly purchase course materials from any source off campus, student stores and copy centers are prohibited from selling coursepacks and textbooks to students.

9. Our student chemistry club (or other student group) sells as fundraisers lab books created by faculty that do not require copyright clearance. Is this OK?

The Huntley Bookstore would like to partner with those groups and sell the materials for them. The Huntley can set up each group as a vendor and, upon sale of all materials, provide the group a check for the proceeds. The Huntley should be able to sell those materials for the same price as the group would, thus eliminating time and expense that the group would spend on selling the materials.

• For more information about Huntley Bookstore, coursepacks, and/or its compliance with the HEOA:
  • Jeff Meyers, Store Manager of The Huntley Bookstore, jmyers@follett.com , Jeffmeyers@claremont.edu or (909) 607-3208
  • Jacque Padilla, Textbook Manager for The Huntley Bookstore, huntleytextbooks@claremont.edu or (909) 607-3783.
• Copyright Policy of the Claremont Colleges
• Fair Use Analysis Tool (University of Minnesota)
• Information for this page was provided courtesy of Copyright Clearance Center
• Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008