As authors, students hold copyright of their theses. See Copyright at SFU for more information.

Everyone. Faculty, staff and students should always seek to comply with the Copyright Act as a best practice of academic professionalism. You are only permitted to make lawful copies of works, and use works in lawful ways. Failure to comply with the Copyright Act could lead to personal liability, as well as liability for the University. Ensure that you use copyright protected materials appropriately. Advise students and colleagues to use copyright protected materials appropriately. Contact the Copyright Officer if you have questions.

Dr. Ambedkar (1891-1956) was the architect of independent India's constitution, a champion for human and civil rights, a renowned scholar, and the restorer of Buddhism in India. Born a member of the Dalit (formerly untouchable) community, Ambedkar overcame prejudice and systemic barriers to obtain a doctorate, and eventually an honorary doctorate for his accomplishments as a social reformer. The Ambedkar association is a consciousness-raising organization for the Dalit community.

Through the SFU Institute for the Humanities, the University and the Library have been honoured with the placing of a bust of Dr. BR Ambedkar in the 3rd floor lounge area of the WAC Bennett Library. SFU joins Columbia University and the London School of Economics to be honoured in this way.

Usually, the creator of a work (e.g., one who writes a book, magazine or newspaper article, play, poem, song lyrics or other writings, takes a photograph or makes a film, draws a map, or creates a painting, drawing, or sketch) is the first owner of the copyright in that work. However, ownership of copyright may be transferred in some cases, for example to a publisher. Copyright also applies to other subject matter, including sound recordings, performances and communication signals. Owning a copy of a work (e.g. a DVD or a book) does not mean that you own copyright in that work. Additionally, if material was created in the course of employment - unless there is an agreement to the contrary - the employer owns the copyright (at SFU, however, generally employees retain ownership of copyright in their research and teaching materials - see here for details). Similarly, if a work has been commissioned the copyright will belong to the person or entity that commissioned the work (depending on the terms of the contract). Finally, ownership of copyright can be transferred to another entity, such as a publisher in the case of an article or book.

There are exceptions built into the Copyright Act which balance the copyright owner's interests with the public interest in allowing use of works for purposes like research and education, such as fair dealing.

Generally, the creator of a work owns copyright in that work unless it has been assigned to another entity, such as a publisher or other person. However, if the work was created in the course of employment, the employer may own the copyright.  

SFU Policy R30.03 Intellectual Property Policy describes how the University manages the intellectual property rights of members of the university community who create works in a scholarly, professional or student capacity. Members include employees, students, post-doctoral fellows and research grant employees affiliated with the University and who use facilities, resources or funds administered by the University in the course of University-related research and other creative activities. 

Simon Fraser University faculty and non-faculty staff own copyright in their own scholarly works, including research and teaching materials. In some cases, an employee's contract may specify a different copyright ownership arrangement. Undergraduate students retain copyright in all works created during their course of study. Graduate students retain copyright in their own works (including theses) unless a research contract in support of the student’s work stipulates otherwise.

SFU's W.A.C. Bennett Library is named for the longest-serving premier in BC history. Born in New Brunswick in 1900, William Andrew Cecil Bennett began his BC career as a successful hardware merchant in Kelowna. First active in the provincial Conservative Party, he joined the Social Credit Party in 1951, and became its leader after a surprise election victory in 1952.

During his 20 year term as premier, the province saw rapid economic growth and the ambitious expansion of highways, hydro dams, railways, ferry service and post-secondary institutions, SFU among them. After winning re-election 6 times in campaigns against the "godless socialists" of the CCF-NDP (his term), Bennett resigned his leadership a year after his party was defeated by the NDP in 1972. His son Bill Bennett assumed the leadership, and later become premier himself.

Known as "Wacky" to his political foes, W.A. C. Bennett died February 23, 1979 in Kelowna.

A photograph of W.A.C. Bennett hangs on the 3rd floor of the Bennett Library, opposite the south west elevators. The photograph's caption reads, " The Honorable W.A.C. Bennett, P.C.O.C., LL.D., D. Pol. Sci., K.ST.J.; 1900-1979; Premier of the Province of British Columbia 1952-1972; Who gave strong and unconditional support to the concept of Simon Fraser University."

For more information, see:

• Bennett, William Andrew Cecil in the Encyclopedia of British Columbia [online]
• W.A.C. Bennett and the Rise of British Columbia [print]

The SFU Library provides access to ebooks from many different publishers on a variety of platforms.  Some of the ebook platforms include DRM (Digital Rights Management) to protect the content of their ebooks from copyright abuse. This means that you will encounter a variety of limitations in how much you can print, download and save from an ebook.

Access to ebooks on third party platforms is an agreement between the platform and the publisher; the library has no involvement, except for the right to purchase (or lease) the ebook on an ebook platform. 

It is common for a publisher, or an author, to request additional DRM limits (on top of the platform's standard DRM restrictions). Unfortunately, there is no way to know for sure which ebooks these additional limits apply to -- except when you attempt to do something that is beyond the limits, such as print 20 pages in one session if the publisher has set the limit to 15 pages on that platform.

Ebook Central

• The copy and print limits on most Proquest Ebook Central books are based on a percentage of the number of pages in the book.  (per book, per user session) Pages you can print = 30% and pages from which you can copy = 15%.
• Allows full book download for two weeks (14 days) using Adobe Digital Editions
• You must register for an account.

Ebook Collection (EBSCOhost)

• Allows sixty (60) pages of PDF downloads from the online book. Downloaded pages may be saved and printed.
• Allows full book download (desktop) for various periods of time (1-7 days) using Adobe Digital Editions
• For Apple and Android users, BlueFire Reader (free download) supports ePub and PDF viewing
• Full book download to be viewed on Kindle: PDFs can be created in the eBook Full Text view and transferred using Send To Kindle
• Downloading in PDF and ePub is not available for Concurrent user level: limited user access (1 copies available). 
• You must register for an account

Gale Virtual Reference Library

• Allows PDF downloads of a single article or portions of a single article at a time.

Related:

• How do I get ebooks?
• What are licenses?

How do I sign into the Catalogue?

Once you are in the Library Catalogue:

• If you haven't started searching, click on "Sign in."
• If your search is already underway, look for the yellow highlighted prompt to sign in.

Use your SFU computing ID to sign in

If you have a SFU computing ID, use it.

I'm an alumna/alumnus -- how do I sign in?

Use your SFU computing ID.  

If your SFU computing ID isn't working, or you have forgotten it, see About Alumni Email Forwarding to (re)activate your SFU Computing ID. 

No SFU ID?

Some borrowers, including non-credit students and external borrowers, are not issued SFU computing IDs.  

If you don't have an SFU ID but do have a library barcode, you can use your Library barcode and password.

Sign into the Catalogue to request items, check your account, update your PIN, etc.

When you sign into the Library Catalogue, you can do the following:

Request items

You will not see an option to request an item until you sign in.

See My Library account, renew books, update your PIN for the self-checkout KIOSK

Save items or searches to your Favourites

View citations or references to items from a few publishers who limit access to this content

Get help with signing in

Contact staff in Access Services (Loans) for help with your account:

• libcirc@sfu.ca
• 778.782.4345 - W.A.C. Bennett Library, SFU Burnaby
• 778.782.5050 - Belzberg Library, SFU Vancouver
• 778.782.7411 - Fraser Library, SFU Surrey.

Undergraduate students are given a 3 week loan on all items that are designated "high use." "Low use" items are still available on semester loan to undergraduate students. This policy is in place to ensure that materials in high demand are available for other students.

See Loan periods: Borrowing Library materials for further information.

If you have comments or concerns regarding this Policy, please Contact us or speak directly to the Loans staff and/or supervisors if you prefer.

The work that archivists do in preparing materials for research use is called “processing.” This involves:

• identifying and describing materials
• making the materials discoverable by creating finding aids (like these pages), database records, and other tools
• rehousing materials in archival-standard enclosures (like acid- and lignin-free boxes and file folders)

Because we want our users to know we have relevant holdings to their research, we list and selectively provide access to our unprocessed collections.

Interested in exploring an unprocessed collection? Contact us as early as possible so we can discuss details.