Page:The librarian's copyright companion, by James S. Heller, Paul Hellyer, Benjamin J. Keele, 2012.djvu/97

Chapter Five. The Library Exemption (Section 108) in any format, including digital, but digital copies may be used only within the library premises.

Before a library may make a copy under section 108(c) it must have made a reasonable effort to acquire an unused replacement copy, and must not have been able to find such a copy at a fair price. The legislative history notes that a reasonable effort varies according to the circumstances, but that a library should contact commonly-known trade sources such as dealers and jobbers, and generally the publisher or other copyright owner. You do not need to contact used book dealers; you must only determine that you cannot get an unused copy at a fair price.

What is a fair price? In 1983, the Register of Copyrights wrote that a fair price for a book or periodical is that which is charged by a publisher, a dealer specializing in remainders, or a jobber or dealer in bulk issues of periodicals, but not if the only unused copies are available at high prices from rare or antique dealers. The Register’s statement makes more sense for books than for journals when you consider the following scenarios.

'''Example 1. The Case of the Missing Issue'''

You are ready to bind the six issues from a scholarly journal, and discover that the July/August issue is missing. The subscription price was $40 for six issues, or about $7.00 per issue.

'''Example 2. The Case of the Missing Article'''

Someone cut out one article from the same journal. Each of the six issues has eight to ten articles. In other words, you “lost” about 2% of the volume.