Guidelines for access and use of electronic resources

The use of the AlmaRE Collections subscribed by the University of Bologna is subject to user licences negotiated at national and local level, or through a national consortium, with publishers or providers of electronic journals, databases and e-books.

In AlmaStart users can find the conditions of the licences signed with the publishers. These are displayed in both the information sheets of the collections in the Collection Search tab (e.g.: Wiley E-journals) and in the information sheets of individual electronic journals, e-books or documents (e.g.: Il Sole 24 Ore).

In general, authorised users and allowed uses may vary depending on the clauses included, but the following features are common to most licences:

 

Authorised users

The licences allow access to authorised users specified in the agreements (all institutional users) and, if included in the clauses, certain categories of non-institutional users:

Institutional users

1. students, Ph.D. students, research fellows
2. teaching staff
3. professors emeriti if officially indicated as such in the University of Bologna's staff database and upon submission of a formal request to the Head of Department to maintain the institutional credentials and the authorisation to access the University online services
4. technical-administrative staff
5. staff on contract (for the duration of the contract)

 

Non-institutional users

6. alumni (former students) and University retired staff (limited to the resources available and subject to the conditions indicated on the information page: Extended access to AlmaRE Collections for non-institutional users)
   
7. accredited external collaborators and visiting professors
8. external users with temporarily allowed access to services within individual libraries (referred to as "walk-in users" in the licences). Libraries that regulate the service.

The licences available in AlmaStart specify authorised non-institutional users in the clauses: alumni, retired staff, walk-in-users and related notes.

 

How to access the electronic resources

The licences only allow access to electronic resources once it has been verified that the user has the right to use the content. Therefore, to be recognised as authorised users, it is necessary to log in one of the following ways:

• from within the University network: via any fixed workstation in the University premises or AlmaWIFI wireless network
• from outside the University network (home, abroad, public spaces, private connections, etc.): through the Proxy service available for authorised users (excluding temporarily admitted external users) or through another authentication service with institutional credentials.
  
  

Permitted and Non-Permitted uses

The University of Bologna is required to actively monitor compliance with permitted uses and to detect any abuses. However, the responsibility for any violations remains with the individual users who are granted access to the materials.

 

Permitted uses	Non-Permitted uses
Use the licensed materials for personal, educational or research purposes	Use the licensed materials for commercial purposes, such as selling, renting, or reproducing.
Print or save a limited number of copies of the licensed materials	Systematically save, print or copy materials and/or large amounts of data, even using specific softwares (scripts, robots, spiders, etc.) whose use is expressly prohibited by the licences and may lead to service interruption by the publishers (including remote access via EZproxy), causing detriment to all institutional users
Share licensed materials with other authorised users	Share the materials covered by licence with unauthorised external users and/or allow them access to the licensed materials, by disclosing or making publicly available personal usernames and passwords
Insert links to specific research, teaching and research materials on institutional websites	Send documents by e-mail and/or to websites
	Remove, alter or modify the author's name, copyright notices and any identifying information of the right holder appearing on the licensed materials
	Modify, alter or create derivative works of the licensed materials without permission

 

 

Specific uses for libraries, professors, research and teaching activities

 

• Document Delivery (sending copies of articles or book chapters between libraries)
  

Document delivery of documents in PDF or HTML original format is generally not permitted, but only the sending of printed documents via mail or fax is allowed. Some publishers and providers of scientific documents do, however, allow file delivery using the Nilde software.