Please see the bottom box on this page of the Copyright Guide for Reserves and E-Reserves information.
Unfortunately and fortunately, there is no hard and fast percentage or portion rule that can help you determine what would be a Fair Use. You may have heard of the 10% rule, or of using "only one chapter or article" from a publication. But these come from guidelines, not law, and have stuck around despite their flaws. A Fair Use can only be decided by a court, which you probably want to avoid, but there are cases where using the entirety of work can be seen as a fair use, depending on the use. Though an educational use would likely weigh in your favor, using more than just the portion needed would weigh against your use. Also, if you are faculty of TCC, please see our copyright policy on the TCC Library Copyright Guide. Just because you think something is Fair Use, doesn't mean TCC as your employer will!
Fair Use is one of the exceptions to copyright law. To evaluate whether something is fair use you must weigh the four factors of Fair Use.
If using a ebook, you might not be able to download chapters or sharing access might be against the license you have with the vendor or publisher, which would trump copyright exceptions in this case. Please note the librarians do not have access to most department agreements with textbook publishers. You might have to check with your department head or office. Depending on your need, circumention might go against the DMCA.
If you determine that your use of the copyrighted work does not fall within the fair use exception, you may always leave a textbook or other material on reserve in the library for your students to read. Please contact the campus library where you would like the material to be reserved. Official TCC policy can be found here.
