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Text and Data Mining Rights at K-State Libraries

This guide names current electronic resources at K-State Libraries that include mining rights for university research purposes.

Library Research Guide

In order to avoid jeopardizing university access to a licensed resource, please consult the information in this guide before text or data mining of resources licensed by K-State Libraries. In this guide you will find

  • process for text and data mining using resources licensed by K-State Libraries.mining
  • names of vendors who agree to mining and crawling of their resource.

If you have any questions or require permission of a resource that is not listed in this guide, please consult the Electronic Resources Librarian.

Text and Data Mining Licensed Content

  • Some of the coursework and research at K-State may require an analysis of the patterns of large amount of journal articles or data.  
  • The library vendors may have tools built into their search interface, but some work may also require a separate application programming interface (API) to process the information because of its size.  A vendor may provide an API through its original agreement, or project investigators may receive permission to build one locally.  

  • Curious about data mining? Watch this video by Thales Sehn Koerting (2015) for a brief introduction.

 

Warning about Mining Activities and Library Agreements

  • The activities associated with text or data mining constitute "systematic download", which is often a cause for allegation of breach of a license agreement.  

  • Another reason a vendor might object is that they do not allow the content to be modified, such as downloading full text HTML or PDFs and creating separate text files of their content.  

  • Please consult the information in this guide before text or data mining of resources licensed by K-State Libraries.  If you have any questions or require permission of a resource that is not listed in this guide, please consult the Electronic Resources Librarian.

Information Technology Usage Policy (PPM 3420.060) states: 

Electronic content made available by the K-State Libraries is provided through specific license agreements. These licenses describe who can use the resource, how it may be used, and the consequences of misuse. Excessive or systematic downloading may result in denial of access. While definitions differ, publishers generally consider multiple sequential chapters of a book or more than half of an entire issue of a journal excessive...Use of any Library electronic resources constitutes acceptance of K-State’s Information Technology Usage Policy, PPM Chapter 3420.