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Permissions and Copyright

Permissions and Copyright

The West Virginia and Regional History Center does not require permission to publish. However, we are not the copyright holder for many of our collections and it is the responsibility of the researcher to ensure that they have the proper permissions required prior to publication. The WVRHC cannot grant permission for, nor can we facilitate gaining permission, for materials where we are not the rights holder. The researcher assumes all responsibility when using our collections. Please see the Conditions for Duplication of Materials in the WVRHC for further information.

We do ask that researchers credit any of our collections used. We do not have a suggested citation, but our basic credit line is “West Virginia and Regional History Center, West Virginia University Libraries.” For archives and manuscripts, the suggested citation is:

[Description and date of item], [Box/folder number], [Collection Name], [Collection Number], West Virginia and Regional History Center, West Virginia University Libraries, Morgantown, West Virginia.

The chart below is provided to help researchers understand the types of copyright status and potential permissions needed, however it is not exhaustive and each researcher should research copyright statuses thoroughly.

Copyright Status	Permission needed
Materials in the public domain	No permission is needed
Materials not in the public domain	Permission may be needed. Researchers will need to determine if they need permission for their specific use
WVU university archives	WVU is the copyright holder for this material and permission will need to be granted from WVU if the use exceeds fair use. Please contact our Head of Archives and Manuscripts, Jane LaBarbara, at jane.labarbara@mail.wvu.edu for further information
Congressional archives	Materials created by federal elected officials while carrying out official duties are not copyrighted. Materials created outside of official duties are copyrighted. Please contact our Associate Director & Modern Congressional & Political Papers Archivist, Danielle Emerling, at Danielle.Emerling@mail.wvu.edu for further information.

For the finding aids themselves, finding aid description and metadata in the WVRHC's Guide to Archives and Manuscripts are licensed under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication. This means that anyone may copy, modify, and distribute this descriptive metadata without restriction or permission. We request that users credit the author(s) of any finding aids they use, as well as the West Virginia and Regional History Center, West Virginia University Libraries. Please also note that some finding aids may include information that is quoted and cited from other sources.

Determining copyright status and researching rights holders

Use the following to learn more about the Public Domain, Fair Use, and researching a rights holder:

Is the material I’m using in the Public Domain?

Is it Protected by Copyright?

Do I even need permission?