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Store Hours

Monday to Friday: 10am to 4pm
Saturday & Sunday: Closed

Contact

Phone: 613-533-6543
Fax: 613-545-0350
Email: pcc@ams.queensu.ca

Publishing & Copy Centre
John Deutsch University Centre
Kingston, ON K7L 3N9

 

Course Pack FAQs

Why should I create a Course Pack instead of a Reserve Reading?

The P&CC provides a quick, easy, affordable, and legal way for your students to get the materials they need for their classes. P&CC Course Packs adhere to Canadian copyright laws and ensure that content creators are fairly compensated for their work. 
Course Packs are a convenient and accessible solution for students. Rather than placing the onus on photocopy a reserve reading, completed course packs are made available for sale on the first day of classes; ensuring your students are able to start doing their readings immediately. Course Packs are also an inexpensive option. Students receive our lowest bulk rate cost for printing, meaning that it is often cheaper for them to buy a bound course pack than to simply print the material themselves. 


The P&CC also works directly with professors to ensure that prices are as accessible as possible to students. In many cases the single largest expense in a course pack is copyright fees. We can help you find ways to lower these costs. For example, material that is in the public domain, or freely available on the web is exempt from copyright payments.

Understandably, these rules and conditions can make it difficult for professors to know the best course of action to provide students with the material they need. The P&CC makes this process easy by working with professors and taking care of the hard copyright questions, ensuring that the entire process follows proper copyright laws and that students receive the best possible product at the lowest possible price.

Why should I use the P&CC for my Course Pack instead of the Campus Bookstore?

There are a number of reasons why P&CC Course Packs are superior to that offered by the Campus Bookstore:
  • ACCESS Copyright and the Queen's administration are becoming increasingly concerned with readings being provided without proper copyright royalties being collected. Reproducing protected work without royalties is tantamount to plagiarism, and violates the high standards of academic integrity Queen's expects of its students.
  • The P&CC will work with you to ensure you are getting exactly what you want. We take pride in ensuring that Professors are 100% satisfied with their courseware by offering digital proofs before production and working with them to ensure that their Course Pack is tailored to their specific course.
  • The P&CC's submission deadline is later than the Campus Bookstore's, allowing you more time to put together exactly what you want.
  • The P&CC produces Course Packs on-site, meaning that if a course sells out, your students will not wait more than 24 hours for their Course Pack to be printed.
  • The P&CC is a student-service, operated by the Alma Mater Society of Queen's University. Every member of our staff, from the management team to our front-line Customer Service Representatives, is a Queen's student. By supporting the P&CC, you are supporting students learning and putting money back in their pockets.
What can go in a course pack?

Course Packs may contain both copyrighted and non-copyrighted materials. This can include lecture notes, slides, review questions, quizzes, answer keys, labs, textbook chapters, black & white or coloured materials and virtually anything else you can think of that can be printed! Course Packs can also include journal articles, book excerpts, and other copyrighted materials. Any material that is protected by copyright and covered under the ACCESS Copyright license must be recorded in an eLog, which is submitted with your Course Pack. The P&CC collects royalties on copyrighted materials covered under the license on behalf of ACCESS Copyright, The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency, who forwards payments to the appropriate creators and publishers. Note that not all material requires copyright payments (see below), and some material is excluded from being included at all. The P&CC will review your course pack and eLog before production and inform you of any problems.

What CAN go in a Course Pack under the Access Copyright license?
  • Up to 15% of a publication, or an entire article, essay, short story, or poem from a book or periodical issue containing other published works.
  • An entire newspaper article or page.
  • An entire reproduction from an artistic work from a book or periodical issue containing other works.
  • An entire chapter which is no more than 20% of a book.
  • Textbooks have special allowances:
    • Maximum of 5% or an entire chapter.
    • No more than 50% of a course pack may be from textbooks.
    • Two author-publisher pairs in a 5-year span.
What CAN'T go in a Course Pack?
  • Anything on Access Copyright's exclusions list. This is material which publishers have specifically barred from being reproduced. To include it in a Course Pack, you must contact the publisher and receive special permission to reproduce it.
  • Sheet music, except that which you have arranged yourself or have special permission to reproduce.
  • More than one chapter (which is no more than 20%) of a book.
  • Copyrighted workbooks, study guides, solution manuals, or instructor's manuals (i.e., those that you did not create yourself).
  • Letters to the editor.
  • Newsletters or any other publications containing proprietary information.
  • Crown Publications (except those published in Quebec).
  • Unpublished material.
What kind of material is exempt?
Certain material does not require copyright payments. Examples include:
  • Any material in the public domain.
  • Any material which you personally hold the copyright on (note that this might not include articles you have written which have been published elsewhere, since the publisher may hold a copyright claim).
How are copyright payments determined?

The P&CC charges 12.5¢ per page of source material. Note that in many cases multiple pages of source material may be printed on one sheet of paper, hence why there can be more copyright pages in a Course Pack than actual pages!

How can I make my Course Pack as affordable as possible to students?

The P&CC charges our lowest bulk rates for Course Pack production, making it cheaper to purchase a course pack than to print each article individually. In many cases, the single biggest cost of a Course Pack is in copyright payments. Choosing articles which are outside of copyright will substantially reduce the amount of copyright your students will have to pay. The P&CC reviews all Course Packs and eLogs before production, and will let you know of any copyright costs that appear to be very high. We're happy to work with you to ensure your Course Pack is as accessible as possible to students.

When do I need to submit my Course Pack by?

In order to guarantee availability for the first day of fall classes, we ask that Course Packs be submitted no later than November 1st, 2012. Course Packs may be accepted beyond this date at the discretion of the P&CC, but we cannot guaranteed that Course Packs submitted after the deadline will be available for pick-up on the first day of classes. 

How do I submit a Course Pack?

You can submit a Course Pack in one of two ways:
  1. Submit a collection of digital PDF files to pcc.purchasing@ams.queensu.ca. We will assemble this into a course pack and produce it for you.
  2. Submit a collection of hardcopies to the P&CC. We will scan your documents, clean them, and return your originals to you.
What if I can't make it into the store? Can I mail you my course pack?

Yes! Mail your complete set of hard copies to:
The Publishing & Copy Centre
ATTN: Milan Kshatriya
John Duestch University Centre, Queen's University
Kingston, ON K7L 3N6

Don't forget to email your completed eLog to pcc.purchasing@ams.queensu.ca, too!

I had a Course Pack produced at the P&CC in the past. Do you still have it on file?

That depends. If you had a course pack produced in the 2010/2011 academic year, then we still have it on file and can reproduce the same pack or make minor adjustments as you prefer. If you had a course pack produced in 2012-2013, we likely still have it - please email us to confirm. If you had a course pack produced before then, then unfortunately we likely no longer have a copy of it, so you'll have to start from scratch.
What if I have other questions?

Feel free to contact Milan at pcc.purchasing@ams.queensu.ca, or call the store at 613-533-6543.

Please note: Information on this page is subject to change without notice.