using images ifrom a book n a university exhibit

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  • We have a patron that would like to enlarge photos from "Without Sanctuary" a book on Lynching to display in an exhibit for Black History month--They want to use 10 of the images. The book is 2000 and i haven;t looked at it yet but i susupect the photos may be historical photos
    The patron feels that because this is a University campus they have the fair use right to enlarge and post these photos in the Univeristy gallery

    My sense is that this would require permission.

    What do you think
  • I wrote up an answer for this, but was thwarted by technical difficulties (computers!). Let me try again:

    Being on a university campus does not automatically assure that posting enlargements would be fair use, although an educational purpose would certainly be in your favor on one of the four prongs of fair use.

    It's possible that the pictures are out of copyright, although it's hard to say. You may want to use the digital copyright slider at http://librarycopyright.net/digitalslider/. If the pictures are in copyright, then this is a handy form to help you determine whether the proposed use would be fair: http://copyright.columbia.edu/fair-use-checklist. Keep in mind that each photo would be considered a work, so although 10 photos would be a small portion of the book, they would be the complete photo, and thus the amount use would be against fair use rather than for it.

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