The University of Memphis Libraries Special Collections Department is committed to providing quality information and resources to the campus community and beyond. The Special Collections Department complies with the Copyright Act of 1976 and upholds the standards of our profession by ensuring that archives provide archival materials under fair use. The department will provide archival surrogates of materials that are within its collections but will not grant rights of use or evaluate copyright of archival materials that are not owned by the University of Memphis or the copyright for which has not been transferred to the University of Memphis.

 

The Special Collections Department has archival collections in several states of known and unknown copyright. The department makes digital surrogates of archival materials available to provide access for private study, scholarship, and research. The department encourages archives users to seek out the rights to copyrighted materials through the appropriate copyright holder. The department cannot always be certain of the copyright status of some materials and will not clear copyright for researchers. Therefore, persons using these items assume full liability of usage.

 

The Special Collections Department does not provide archives users in-house scanners or copiers to duplicate materials. Special Collections staff will provide archives users with digital surrogates of archival materials upon request. Such digital surrogates are subject to processing fees where applicable. Processing fees may be waived for University of Memphis students and employees using archival material to fulfill University-affiliated business. For more information regarding reproduction, please refer to the department’s policy on duplication and reproduction.

 

Questions regarding copyright or use of materials should be directed to the department at specialcollections@memphis.edu.