Copyright and Usage Policy

The Corn Islands Virtual Library (the “Library” or “Virtual Library”), including its dedicated exhibition platform The Corn Islands Virtual Museum (the “Virtual Museum”), hosts a variety of materials that may be protected under national and international copyright laws. These resources are made available exclusively for educational, academic, and research purposes.

The Library's digital collection, which encompasses the Virtual Museum, includes both original and third-party content. Materials created, digitised, or developed by the Virtual Library, including those presented through the Virtual Museum, such as photographs, oral histories, artefact records, historical documents, and curated exhibitions, are considered the intellectual property of the Library unless otherwise stated.

The Library does not claim ownership of third-party materials such as books, legal texts, magazines, academic articles, or externally sourced artefacts and documents featured on its website or within the Virtual Museum. These remain the property of their respective authors, publishers, institutions, or custodians. Such works are shared under explicit permission, licensing agreements, or because they are in the public domain. All third-party content is clearly attributed to its original source with proper identification of the author, contributor, or publication details.

The Corn Islands Virtual Library is committed to respecting the intellectual property rights of others and fully complies with applicable copyright laws. If you believe that any content hosted by the Library, including material exhibited through the Virtual Museum, infringes upon your rights, please contact us immediately. Upon verification, the relevant content will be removed promptly.

Use of any materials from the Virtual Library, including content presented through the Virtual Museum, for commercial purposes is strictly prohibited. The Library assumes no responsibility for copyright or intellectual property violations resulting from unauthorised use of its content.

By accessing the Virtual Library and its Museum platform, you agree to use all content solely for non-commercial, educational, and research purposes, and to comply with all applicable copyright and intellectual property regulations.

Materials owned by the Virtual Library, including those presented on the Virtual Museum platform, may only be used for non-commercial purposes with explicit written permission. When using such materials, proper attribution must be provided using one of the following statements:

For content from the Virtual Library:

“Used with permission of The Corn Islands Virtual Library”, followed by the relevant URL or title of the content.

For content published through the Virtual Museum:

“Used with permission of The Corn Islands Virtual Library and its Virtual Museum”, followed by the relevant URL or title of the catalogue entry.

For academic work, materials should be cited using a recognised citation style such as APA, Harvard, or Chicago. Below are examples for citing materials from both the Virtual Library and its extension, the Virtual Museum, using APA style:

The Corn Islands Virtual Library. (2023, August). The emancipation from slavery on Corn Islands. The Corn Islands Virtual Library. https://www.cornislandslibrary.org/2023/08/the-emancipation-from-slavery-on-corn.html

The Corn Islands Virtual Library. (2025, June). Reptiliomorphic ceramic support (Digital catalogue entry TCISVM-0019). The Corn Islands Virtual Museum. https://www.cornislandsmuseum.org/p/tcisvm-0019-reptiliomorphic-ceramic.html