Downloaded information from British Library Business & IP Centre Resources is for personal use only!

Howard Lake | 10 November 2008 | Blogs

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For a long time, I have been promoting the use of library resources for fundraisers and researchers. I think that I have been encouraged to do so by libraries making resources available in things like The British Library Business & IP Centre (www.bl.uk/bipc). However, we need to check carefully for that small print, and see what use is allowed. I have just been told that in the British Library Business & IP Centre, downloaded information is for personal use only. However, I have been advised that many of the publishers’ main commercial concern is that library customers will sell on content either directly or via added value reports which are sold. In most cases publishers’ do not have a problem with customers using their content in business plans or to guide business decisions. It would be reassuring to have that confirmed in writing.
What about using these databases but not actually downloading data? What about using reports, books, magazines, journals etc. What are we permitted to do, and how might this vary from library to library?
I note that the City Business Library (http://digbig.com/4xwbb) online notes state that FAME (for example) may be used to compile mailing lists, so commercial use is OK there, then, it would appear.
It would be great if someone from the British Library Business & IP Centre, City Business Library or Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP*) could go into this in a little more detail. I reckon it’s time for me to send an email to the Researchers in Fundraising committee, and check out the terms and conditions of other libraries, again!

Finbar Cullen
ResearchPlus
* CILIP (www.cilip.org.uk) was formed in April 2002 following the merger of the Institute of Information Scientists and the Library Association.

About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale. He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.