Copyright, Acknowledgement and Re-use

Find out about copyright exceptions and advice, acknowledgements and data protection.

Copyright in Special Collections and Archives

Altough we may physically hold material in our collections for research purposes, UK legislation may not allow ourselves or others to copy because the intellectual property still belongs to the creator or a designated third party.

Exceptions to this do apply, including:

where copyright covering the material has expired
where copying is covered by 'fair dealing' exemptions (this is where the copy is for the purpose of research or private study only)
where copying is for educational use within a teaching environment

Where none of these apply, copyright permission must be obtained from the copyright owner before any copying from our rare books and archives takes place.

Gaining copyright permission

Wherever possible, we will try to assist in giving advice on whether exceptions apply and who may own the copyright. However, the responsibility to gain copyright permission is with you, and we cannot copy or allow re-use without confirmation of such permissions.

Further copyright advice

For general advice on copyright, please visit the Library's Copyright and Intellectual Property Rights guide.

For advice on copyright where it relates to material within our collections, please contact us using the details at the bottom of the page.

Acknowledgements

Special Collections items which are reproduced or referenced, including in publications, should be acknowledged in the form:

[insert full item reference], [insert collection name], Newcastle University Special Collections, GB 186.

Data Protection

Some of the more modern items within our archive collections will be restricted under the terms of the United Kingdom's Data Protection Act 1998 as the material potentially contains personal information about living individuals. If this is the case, we will make it clear in our catalogues and advise you accordingly.