Harvard Library CC BY Copyright Policy

The Harvard Library acts as steward of the University’s collections; we preserve and make them accessible for research, scholarship, and education. Our web pages provide public access to a wide range of materials in many media, including online exhibits, digitized text collections, digital image repositories, archival finding aids, and our catalog.

Enabling open access to these collections and resources goes hand in hand with Harvard Library’s commitment to the widespread dissemination of knowledge.

Copyright

An essential part of our mission is to make information and resources available for educational and scholarly purposes consistent with copyright law. We evaluate copyright before making collections material available online. When possible, we provide rights information in catalog records, finding aids, and other information that accompanies collections or items. However, we do not guarantee the accuracy of that information. It is the user’s obligation to evaluate rights issues in light of their own use. The Library makes no express or implied warranty to others who wish to use the content on its web pages. Transmission or reproduction of protected items beyond that allowed by copyright exceptions such as fair use or by specific agreement requires the permission of the copyright owner.

Creative Commons

We apply Creative Commons licenses to our content when possible. Our web pages provide access to a variety of materials, and copyright or licensing restrictions may vary.

Many of the Harvard Library web pages are labeled and available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (CC BY). When a Harvard Library page is labeled as “CC BY,” the license applies to textual content written by Harvard Library staff as part of their employment, where the President and Fellows of Harvard College holds the copyright, as described more fully below.

Terms and Attribution

The CC BY license allows anyone to share and adapt the licensed content as long as they give credit for the original creation and follow the license terms. Attribution, which is mandatory, should be given to "Harvard Library, © [YEAR] President and Fellows of Harvard College, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License " 

What's included under the CC BY license?

The following material appearing on a Harvard Library web page displaying the CC BY icon is not included:

• Any quotations from text written by someone other than a Harvard Library staff member
• Any Harvard shield or logo, and any Harvard name used as a trademark
• Articles, letters, books, and other works of authorship that are part of our collections or licensed resources
• Any other textual content that it is evident was not written by a Harvard Library staff member
• Photographs, images, sound recordings, audiovisual works, software, and any other non-textual content, unless any such item of non-textual content bears its own CC BY icon. Hence, for example, images in our digital collections are excluded unless they separately bear the CC BY icon.
• Any content that is linked to from a web page displaying the CC BY icon but is not set forth on that page
• Any other content that is excluded from the CC BY license in the CC BY footer or elsewhere on the web page

Content on pages without a CC BY icon is not licensed under the CC BY license.

Use of Harvard Name or Logo

The users of any web page content may not suggest or imply that Harvard Library endorses, approves of, or participated in their projects. Harvard's name may not be used in the title or the name of any product or work, and may not be used as a metadata search term or as part of a website name or web address, or be large or prominent. The use of the Harvard name or trademarks for any purpose other than standard source citation requires the prior approval of the Harvard University Trademark Program.