Book Covers

We are trying to determine if sharing only book covers as part of video book talks published online is Fair Use. We think we can support a Fair Use evaluation. However, we would like to know how library management software is allowed to include covers in our online public access catalogs. How to do they get permission? We would like any feedback and information regarding book covers.

I am writing this answer on a Friday afternoon, so before I give a formal answer (and I will, this is an important question), please indulge me in a small flight of fancy.

I would like to decorate a cart for use in a free books initiative I am planning for our school. Our art club is interested and willing to paint and design it. I understand that we can't have them paint covers from books but we'd like to print out book covers and then decoupage them onto parts of the cart. Would that be acceptable? We want to promote the books while respecting copyright!

A tricked-out, decoupaged book cart [1] sounds awesome (especially if it comes with free books).  A commitment to honoring copyright is awesome, too.  And it is entirely possible to do both.

How?