1HERON is an initiative within the Electronic Libraries Programme (eLib), funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee of the

Higher Education Funding Councils, and administered by its Committee on Electronic Information. 1

Seminar on electronic course materials

University of Helsinki October 24th 2001

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Outline

1. The HERON Service why HERON was established what does HERON do key issues for HERON

2. The experience of Universities using the

HERON service 3 case studies key issues for use of electronic readings

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HERON background

HERON: Higher Education Resources ON-Demand

originally a phase 3 eLib project, now DNER

built on experience gained from previous eLib projects such as SCOPE and ACORN

funded by the JISC

and run by a Partnership of three universities

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University of Stirling

Napier University (Edinburgh)

South Bank University (London)

(Blackwell Retail Ltd: Aug 1998 - July 2001)

The HERON Partnership

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What does HERON do?

HERON provides a national service for the UK HE sector for copyright clearance, digitisation and delivery of electronic articles and book extracts

HERON also has, uniquely in the UK, Trusted Repository status which allows us to build a resource bank of digitised material which is available to Higher Education Institutions at reduced cost and at short notice

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The HERON Service

The full service can be divided into 6 stages:

members submit requests to HERON requests are copyright cleared through CLA

or direct with rightsholders estimates of total costs are provided the estimate is accepted or rejected the material is digitised or a paper pack is

created the request is delivered in its final format

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The HERON Service

The HERON Service is created from three strands:

Liaison: with HERON Members and with rightsholders and suppliers

Copyright Office: clearance through Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) publishers and authors

Technical Unit: digitisation and technical support both for the service and for Members

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HERON Liaison

The Liaison Officer: provides publicity about HERON is the first point of contact for would-be

members provides information, presentations and

support for all new and existing members organises HERON User Group meetings manages lis-hug - HERON’s closed email

discussion list

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HERON’s Copyright Office

Copyright staff: provide centralised expertise and contacts enabling direct

negotiation with publishers, rightsholders and the CLA. (HERON has now worked with over 1,000 publishers)

provide a pressure group on behalf of HEIs to encourage understanding of the needs of HE negotiate to improve copyright clearance terms

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HERON’s Technical Unit

Technical Unit staff: manage the digitisation process to exacting standards deliver digitised files to HERON Members provide technical support for members and staff -

including the creation of HERONweb

a web based request management system tailored to the needs of HERON’s users

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Key issues for the HERON service

problems with the current UK copyright clearance pricing models currently available

slow response from some publishers HEI Texts self supporting status - full cost recovery is

hard to achieve in an immature market usage growing because of developments in

distance learning and the arrival of Managed or Virtual Learning Environments (MLE / VLE)

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Development of the HERON service

August 1998: HERON Project initiated September 1999: pilot service for 5 members September 2001: 42 members

over 10,000 requests submitted £140,000 (1,335,000FM) spent on digitised

extracts from HERON new request management system successfully

introduced streamlining many processes HERON has moved from Project into Service

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Experiences of HERON users

Every HERON Member uses the service and the texts we provide in a different way

Case Studies: To demonstrate this I have chosen three case studies showing very different service models

Key issues: an identification of key issues for universities in the provision of digitised texts for students

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HERON Case Study 1

University of Derby Electronic Library (UDEL)

Background information Reason: Initiated by the University Library in

response to a move from teaching to resource based learning

Aim: to provide high quality resources to enhance learning and widen access

Funding: Project funding from internal funds for ‘Academic Development’

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Case Study 1: UDEL

Year 1 1996/7

3 modules 36 digitised extracts managed by 1 f/t member of staff Reactions:

Academics - enthusiasm UDEL staff - caution about expanding too fast

until the system to manage these resources was developed

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Case Study 1: UDEL

Year 2 1997/8

Funding - Shared Academic Development Fund and Library

1 f/t member of staff 9 modules 134 digitised extracts Reactions:

Academics - increasing confidence in the system and increasing demand for use of UDEL

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Case Study 1: UDEL

The UDEL model has been very successful and has continued to grow so that in 2000/1

Staffing: 3 staff (f/t equivalent) Funding: now from Library budget 67 modules over 600 digitised extracts Responses:

Academic - ‘I would be unable to deliver courses the way I want to without the support of UDEL’

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Case Study 1: UDEL

Issues for UDEL can only work with full support of tutors - they

encourage the students to use the resources cannot work without an effective IT network students - initially alarmed by the technology -

system must be as user friendly as possible user education part of the UDEL service largest problem: the cost of copyright fees

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Case Study 1: UDEL

Successes students love it and want this service for all

their modules once tutors have used UDEL, they increase

their use in subsequent years - they see UDEL an efficient and reliable method of widening access to reading materials

UDEL has now become a recognised service of the University of Derby

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HERON Case Study 2

University of Stirling Institute of Education

use by a single department for online courses

departmental strategy encourages use of ICT for improvement of teaching and learning

the department is prepared to try things out to see if they work

all the requests and the preparation of the

digitised files are managed by one person

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Case Study 2: Institute of Education

Spring 2000 1 module (MSc Lifelong Learning)

5 digitised extracts

external funding used for this pilot

very favourable response from students

decision taken to make all key readings

available electronically for this module for the next semester

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Case Study 2: Institute of Education

Autumn 2000

4 modules 29 extracts

Now funded by the programmes that use them

Autumn 2001

4 modules 37 extracts

‘The MSc has students all round the world who struggled to get key readings. Making them available on the web was a major breakthrough’

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Case Study 2: Institute of Education

Issues for the Institute of Education Cost - though there is a general feeling that

this is money well spent the need to get references from academic

staff well in advance because of time taken for copyright clearances

the need for ICT training for students time to manage digital resources - despite

clearances and digitisation by HERON

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Case Study 2: Institute of Education

Successes use of HERON texts has been heralded as an

overwhelming success digital readings are now an accepted part of

the departments online modules and course projects which are under development

‘PG students often have jobs and families and even UK based students appreciate not having to spend time tracking down readings’

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Case Study 3

Birmingham University: the BUILDER Project

Background Information the aim of the project was to investigate the

issues related to the establishment of a pilot hybrid library or electronic short loan service

BUILDER was established in January 1998 external project funding from the JISC managed within the University Library

Service

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Case Study 3: BUILDER

January 1998 – January 1999 copyright clearance and digitisation

undertaken in house Jan 1999 the pilot ESL service was launched 60 extracts plus 4 complete books

BUILDER then wished to extend the ESL pilot but copyright clearance and digitisation proved too labour intensive for larger scale use

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Case Study 3: BUILDER

Sept 1999 BUILDER joined HERON March 2001 - the ESL contained:

17 modules 171 extracts (135 cleared by HERON)

+ the 4 books

The pilot is now being scaled up by the

University of Birmingham into a full service

using HERON

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Case Study 3: BUILDER

Key lessons from BUILDER a hybrid library needs to be an integral part of

a university’s managed learning environment the library management system is at the heart

of the hybrid library or ESL effective authentication is the key to a

successful ESL service the cost of copyright clearance is a barrier to

wider delivery of learning materials

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The UK University Experience

The identification of key issues for universities in the provision of digitised extracts for students

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Managing use of electronic texts

Universities need: institutional support – pilot to mainstream appropriate technology infrastructure – both

for provision and for access a suitable and robust authentication system to be prepared for ongoing change to offer user education:

online training to accompany electronic texts additional student support in use of ICT

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Managing use of electronic texts

Staff issues staff development – awareness raising

Academic staff - integration into learning and teaching - academic support essential

Library and IT staff – may need new skills for managing digitised texts

changing library or departmental work processes as use of digitised extracts moves from project to mainstream - management of digital resources is time consuming

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Managing use of electronic texts

The most important issues for universities

time - how long will it take?

cost - how much will it cost?

who will pay?

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http://www.heron.ac.uk

Sally Curry, HERON Project Manageremail: s.g.curry@stir.ac.uk tel: +44 (0)1786 466 616