Library staff that request copies of magazine and journal articles through Interlibrary Loan need to indicate on their request compliance with copyright laws. They do this by indicating either “CCG” or “CCL” in the request. But what do those letters mean?

CCG indicates compliance with the CONTU Guidelines. CONTU refers to the Commission on New Technological Uses of Copyright Works. The Guidelines can be found at http://www.cni.org/docs/infopols/CONTU.html. The purpose of the guidelines is to “discourage the use of ILL as a substitute for magazine subscriptions.” (Butler, Rebecca P., Copyright for Teachers and Librarians, 2004.) Butler states that under the CONTU Guidelines, “borrowers may not receive more than five copies in one year from a single journal title published within the last five years.” So, if your library is borrowing a journal article and (1) the article is less than 5 years old, and (2) you have not borrowed more than 5 articles from the same journal in the past year; then you would show “CCG” on your request to indicate that your request complies with the CONTU Guidelines.

If those statements are not true, then you must indicate “CCL” to show compliance with the U.S. Copyright Law. Use CCL when:
1. the article is older than five years, or
2. your library owns the journal title, or
3. it is the sixth or greater request for an article from the same journal title and your library is paying a copyright fee to the Copyright Clearance Center or a document delivery vendor.

Helpful links:

CONTU Guidelines
Michigan Library Consortium Copyright & Interlibrary Loan Information
Section 108 of Copyright Law