Content Mining: FAQ-Usage for patrons

This guide provides information about available text mining resources and tools and whether or not the Libraries subscription databases support content mining.

Is it possible to screen scrape, web scrape, or data scrape from USC library collections and e-resources?

USC Libraries' license agreements with content vendors who support USC with eBooks, journals, and databases do not allow the use of robots, spiders, crawlers or other automated downloading programs, algorithms, or devices to continuously and automatically search, scrape, extract, deep link, or index data or metadata. Those engaging in such activities will be deemed in violation of the University's agreement and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and their access to the resources will be disabled. 

If you are a current USC student, faculty, researcher, or staff working on a scholarly research project which necessitates large-scale data gathering or content mining, please USC Libraries ahead of your project using our Ask-A-Librarian service. (Source)