HERON Annual Report – 1999/00

Carolyn Rowlinson, Project Director
Cathie Moir, HE Project Manager

Contents

1. Introduction

2. Major Activities undertaken in Year 2

2.1 Progress against milestones
2.2 First year of service – 1999/00
2.2.1 Membership – patterns of growth and patterns of use
2.2.2 Licensing and Copyright Clearance
2.2.3 Culture change: rightsholders
2.2.4 Culture change : Higher Education
2.2.5 Culture Change: Who Pays?
2.2.6 HERON User Group
2.2.7 Other forms of support for HERON members
2.2.8 System Review
2.2.9 Technical Unit
2.2.10 Licensing
2.2.11 Personnel
2.2.12 Project Board 3. Future Developments of HERON 3.1 Years. 2 and 3 – Request for underwriting
3.2 HEI owned texts
3.3 HERON, the DNER and JISC
3.4 HERON : Future Appendices

The following are attached as Appendices:
Conferences attended; presentations made; and papers published
 
 

1. Introduction

HERON (Higher Education ON-demand) is a 3-year ‘project-into-service’ in phase 3a of the Electronic Libraries programme. The second project year, which ended on 31 July 2000, was also the first year of service.

HERON has achieved much in this first service year, and significant advances in understanding have been made about what improvements to the service are necessary, and where these need to be made. These achievements are the result of the many efforts of all the HERON staff throughout the year. Despite the recognised problems of costs of delivery to member institutions, and early difficulties in achieving clearance and delivery on time, HERON users have remained positive and supportive. Good relationships have been built up between HERON staff and customers and all but one of the first year users are renewing membership

However, there have been many unforeseen challenges. Blackwell Information Services joint venture with Swets had a major impact on the project, particularly on licensing and system development, with a transfer of some responsibilities to the HE partners. Blackwell Retail Ltd and the HE partners have now, together, established HERON provides a service which has provided copyright cleared and digitised texts to 17 subscribing institutional members – in the circumstances, a considerable triumph. The majority of the HEIs have piloted electronic reserve systems for the first time.

At the proposal stage, it was planned that a prototype service would be demonstrated by the end of December 1998, and that partner sites (Stirling, Napier and South Bank) would test the system in July 1999. As reported in the Annual Report 1998/99, the first of these milestones was met, but due to uncertainties over when copyright clearance could start, the first institutions to receive delivery of electronic files through HERON were the Universities of Birmingham and Huddersfield in October 1999. The HERON service was, therefore, officially opened to universities outside partner sites at this time (see Section 2.1 below).

Finalisation of several legal agreements has been complex and time-consuming, reflecting the determination of all parties to make prudent preparation not just for a project, but for a national service.

Full details of HERON’s activities in Project Year 2 (Year 1 of Service) are given in Section 2 below, with forward plans for Project Year 3 in Section 3. Some of the tensions inherent in being both a service provider and also a project are discussed in Section 3.4.


2. Major Activities undertaken in Year 2

2.1 Progress against milestones

The milestones for Year 2 were as follows:
 

As mentioned above, the HERON service was opened to non-partner sites before October 1999, thereby enabling orders to be placed, and processed.
  See above
  As there had been no demand for this service, and as technology had, inevitably, changed since the proposal stage, it was agreed with JISC that this milestone be replaced. It was replaced with:
  Negotiations on this agreement have been taking place over the first two years of the project. This has been very onerous for all involved. However, there was a delay in meeting this milestone, in part due to the late introduction of additional clauses by the CLA, and the fact that they required a related deed with Napier University, where the TR is housed. It should be noted that this delay has not affected progress with the service, as the CLA has been prepared to work with HERON in good faith. It is now likely that both the main agreement, and the Napier deed, will have been signed before the end of August.
  This has been an integral part of the HERON system since it was introduced.

Progress is already being made on the milestones for Year 3:
 

A feasibility plan for the extension of HERON to the FE sector is in preparation. This will be submitted to the October Project Board for consideration. It is then intended that further investigation be undertaken.
  The exit strategy for HERON has been the subject of much discussion since Year 1 of the project, both at Project Board meetings and at partners’ meetings. Members of the Board, and the HERON team, attended an Away Day in July, at which the future of HERON was again considered. Options for an exit strategy are now being drawn up by Blackwells for review by the Project Board in October.

2.2 First year of service – 1999/00

In the 1998/99 Annual Report, six aims for Year 2 of the project were defined. These are shown below, with comment on progress.

Table 1
 
Aim Progress
Provide a service to test sites by October and January Achieved – see Section 2.1 above
Build up the content of the resource bank Ongoing – both through user request and planned speculative digitisation
Build up the database with records of copyright cleared texts Ongoing
Improve the attractiveness of the HERON product, seek new marketing opportunities and prepare a revised business plan This has been done/is being done through feedback from users (see Section 2.2.6); recommendations on system revision (see Section 2.2.8); attendance at conferences and visits to institutions (see Appendix I), and use of digitisation subsidy to build up the resource bank 
Influence the culture in HEIs with regard to use of electronic text to support teaching and learning Ongoing through institutional visits, conferences and training/induction events (see Appendix I)
Influence rightholders’ payment models and rates for the benefit of HEIs and encourage additional mandates either via the CLA or directly with HERON Ongoing – see Section 2.2.3

There will also be a close relationship with the PELICAN project which is concerned with charging mechanisms for distributing commercially published electronic texts to students

2.2.1 Membership – patterns of growth and patterns of use

HERON’s status as a funded project has allowed HEI members to test electronic delivery in a highly subsidised environment, and has also allowed HERON to constantly test and evaluate different elements of its service, in a way that might not otherwise be possible.

HERON’s target membership for Year 3 was 30 member institutions. However, before the end of Year 2, it appeared likely that, not only would this target be reached, but in probability, easily exceeded. HERON had 17 members by the end of July (end of Project Year 2), at a membership fee of £240 (excl. VAT). The membership fee for Year 3 (service Year 2) has been set at £800 (excl. VAT). Despite the increase in the fee, by 18th August, HERON had 30 confirmed members, with another 13 institutions expressing serious interest, and with general queries on membership from an additional 13.

It is also of note that several colleges in the Further Education sector have expressed interest in HERON.

It is, therefore, clear that there is no lack of interest from prospective HERON members, and HEIs are keen to join the service. However, over Year 2, usage patterns amongst members were very variable.

It appears to be true that HEIs are enthusiastic about membership of HERON, and keen to join. However, it is those institutions with previous experience of electronic delivery and/or named staff whose main job is to facilitate its introduction and use in their university who are able to make most use of the service.

HERON is able to offer members free digitisation up to 31 October 2000 due to the additional grant received from JISC. (See Section 2.2.10 below for further details). It is hoped that this will encourage additional use, as well as increasing the contents of the resource bank.

2.2.2 Licensing and Copyright Clearance

The work of the Copyright staff is also reflected in Section 2.2.3 below.

HERON is collaborating with the Copyright Licensing Agency and also negotiating directly with rightsholders to ensure that customers can take advantage of the most effective and affordable copyright clearance terms, and that rightsholders receive a fair return.

Where appropriate, the HERON Terms and Conditions accord with the CLA digitisation licence, which was the subject of considerable consultation with both the HE community and rightsholders, and known to be broadly acceptable. It is important that member HEIs which receive files from HERON and which have been cleared through a variety of routes, do not have to cope with a range of different licence conditions. Both licences (with some minor variations), permit viewing, downloading and printing, with off-site access when required. The possibility allowed in the CLA digitsation licence (and followed by HERON) of delivering to distance-learning students who are registered members of a university, but resident in a range of overseas countries, is regarded as very helpful within UK HEIs.

HERON Trusted Repository Agreement

HERON has finally concluded a Trusted Repository agreement with the CLA (conducted over a period of two years and led by lawyers on each side). This permits HERON to store texts cleared by any HEI under the CLA licence. HERON and the CLA have worked closely to streamline workflows, and in the last few months there has been considerable improvement. HERON wishes to build on, and improve, both the timeliness and cost of clearance procedures in the future.

HERON Publisher Mandate

The HERON publisher mandate has provisions over and above those in the Publishers Licensing Society mandate, which forms the basis of the CLA HE digitisation licence. The HERON mandate allows for the direct supply of electronic text and metadata from publishers, and the right to supply texts from a publisher's website. It also provides for cases where rightsholders are not yet prepared to license delivery of electronic text to end-users, but are prepared to agree to scanning and storage in electronic format, with delivery of texts in printed course packs only. HERON will therefore be in a position to serve HEIs even when the requirement for retrodigitisation of print tails off, and provision of original electronic text becomes the norm. Blackwell Retail are now taking responsibility for negotiating the mandate with publishers. Following the present testing with a select group, it will be important to secure agreements as widely and rapidly as possible, particularly where the CLA cannot provide appropriate clearances. In the meantime, direct clearances have been carried out as one-off transactions: a new list of rightsholder contacts has been developed and, as illustrated in Section 2.2.3 much experience gained.

2.2.3 Culture change: rightsholders

One of HERON’s broad aims has always been "To collaborate with rightsholders and representative bodies to remove blockages in copyright clearance and to determine appropriate fee levels and conditions for the digital age" (HERON proposal document 2/97).

Inevitably, a number of issues have arisen, some easier to deal with than others, for instance:

Artistic works within texts

Currently the CLA and DACS, the Design and Artists Copyright Society, are still in negotiation over the licensing of photographs, figures, diagrams and graphs which are not considered part of the literary text (as are tables), but as artistic works. Although in many instances, the rightsholders will be the authors or publishers, the CLA cannot licence the inclusion of these until agreement is reached with DACS. HERON avoids this problem by approaching rightsholders directly: in most cases clearance can be given by the publisher, but permission for a significant percentage of illustrations must be sought from a third party.

Obtaining original copy to digitise

To offer a streamlined digitisation service, HERON must be able to obtain copies of original text rapidly, and does this through the British Library Document Supply Service, at Boston Spa. Costs are higher than originally envisaged, as we must pay copyright fees in each case to allow for on-copying – even though the requesting HEI may have a copy of the original in stock, and is likely to have to pay royalty fees for each student in a class. HERON has been successful in persuading many publishers to waive this copyright fee where the requesting HEI owns the original.

Payment models

The type of payment model and the royalty rate are separate issues from the actual licence conditions. We feel frustrated that virtually no publisher has opted for the library substitution model for clearance through the CLA for any category of publication. As a result, HEIs find themselves paying clearance fees for every student in a class, even though there is a strong body of evidence from earlier eLib OD/ER projects, and from the experience of HERON members, to show that the probability of every member of a class reading each recommended text is very small – indeed, the proportion is more likely to be under 50%.

Therefore, HEIs are paying relatively high fees in total, irrespective of usage levels. The CLA and PLS are already persuaded that certain categories of material should be made available under the library material model (one-off payment, irrespective of the number of users, for 5 years). Among the factors which are inhibiting movement in the area of payment models are:

Removing blockages in copyright clearance

HERON’s copyright staff have been working towards "removing blockages in copyright clearance", with some successes over the year:

Books

Journals

In addition, HERON acts as a channel to the CLA for the views of member HEIs. We were pleased to be given the opportunity to update the JISC/PA committee on developments, and to lobby on the issues causing difficulty both for HERON and the HE community in general. Rightsholders there expressed a wish to be kept informed of developments, and an occasional newsletter is planned, with other channels of communication being explored.

2.2.4 Culture Change: Higher Education
(Also see Section 3.2 below)

In a similar manner to the aim of using data from the service to influence rightsholders’ payment models, another of HERON’s aims is to "Influence the culture in HEIs with regard to use of electronic text to support teaching and learning" (HERON proposal document 2/97).

HERON’s Liaison staff, with the assistance of other team members, have sought to do this through a number of means:

In addition, HERON is aware that more liaison is required with non-Library staff within universities. There are always limitations on what can realistically be achieved with a small number of project staff, but where ever possible, the Liaison Officer offers to support HERON members in awareness raising amongst their academic staff about the HERON service and surrounding relevant issues.

This sort of wider liaison is planned for 2000/01, and will be focussed through conferences and exhibitions as well as through visits to interested universities. In addition, HERON will be making further contacts with the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) and with the proposed e-University where it may be expected that HERON could provide valuable support.

HERON has had many achievements in the past year, and its name is spreading throughout HE. However, the barriers to the introduction of a service like HERON are not only financial – HERON will only succeed when huge cultural and organisational changes come about. When, for instance, there is a major swing to online delivery of texts to students through library systems or through managed learning environments designed by academics and educational technologists. This is seldom seen at present on an institution-wide scale; the transition is perhaps slower than was generally expected, despite the enthusiasm of many individuals.

The following are required for electronic text delivery to work in an institution:

HERON can make the HE sector aware of the possibilities of electronic reserve, and can work to make the economic conditions (ie. payment and usage models) more suitable for HE. HERON can also give advice and guidance on technical issues, but cannot overcome lack of a suitable infrastructure. Within its present resource, HERON can only influence the strategic will in a limited way, and cannot subsidise the service in the long term.

2.2.5 Culture change: Who pays?

HERON has been neutral about who pays. It is inevitable that a mixed economy will grow up: just as students and libraries and academics all buy printed texts (and some categories of purchaser may be more likely to purchase certain categories of texts than others).

The service so far has been restricted to dealing with academic staff and librarians for three main reasons:

It has also been found that some publishers make material freely available, on condition that students are not charged.

At our first Project Board meeting in September 1998, the question of a system which allowed credit card payment by students was considered and it was agreed that a simpler prototype system was required first, although credit card transactions with students were not ruled out for a later stage.

It is probable that HEIs also will wish to recover online delivery costs, including royalty fees, from students - for certain categories of material and certain types of course. Their scope for doing so at the moment is limited for technical and possibly legal reasons. There are however no problems with charging students on self-financing courses (such as most taught Masters courses): one simple way which avoids the use of technology is to build costs into course fees.

2.2.6 HERON User Group

The HERON User Group (HUG) has met on three occasions during the pilot year, in London, Birmingham and Oxford and has proved to be very useful both to staff from member institutions and to HERON.

These HUG meetings were instituted both to provide support for the original HERON Year 2 members, and as a mechanism which would allow HERON to gather information from the experiences the Test Sites had of using the HERON System and working with the HERON Team.

The results of evaluations held at the end of each meeting have been overwhelmingly positive. The primary benefits for the members have been – the opportunity to meet other HERON members and to exchange experiences and learn from each other, and the opportunity to meet members of the HERON Team and put questions to them directly.

The HUG meetings have proved so successful that the HERON service has decided to continue them in the coming year (2000-2001).

Some of the key issues to emerge from the HUG meetings:
 

1. Technical and Organisational Infrastructure – Many members are still at an early stage in developing the technical infrastructure necessary to support (in all senses) use of digitised learning materials. Even when pilot services have been introduced, there remains the task of integrating administration of the service into mainstream operations. This takes time since the activities cut across the work of several traditional library functional areas (eg acquisitions, document delivery, cataloguing, short loan administration) and also demand the adoption of relatively new tasks (eg licence administration, mounting texts on servers for public access, and withdrawal when required). Co-operation with other administrative and computing departments may be required. It may seem sensible for library staff to take responsibility for all these activities, even where texts are required by academic staff for delivery to students within managed learning environments, and delivery will not be through the library. It is understandable but regrettable that library staff do not yet always feel ready to promote HERON within their institutions.

2. The HERON System – There was considerable concern about the HERON System itself. The major issues have arisen from the lack of flexibility within the system.

3. Costs – All users have expressed concerns about costs of purchasing digitised materials. Most are at an early stage in the creation of an ‘electronic’ library, and are prepared to accept the prices publishers request, within certain limits. However, there is a widespread feeling that the ‘per page per student’ or Text Book model is not sustainable, and if this issue is not addressed, it will inhibit the growth of the use of digitised materials in the academic sector.

The experience of HERON members continues to bear out many of the issues identified in 1997 by the JISC Supporting Study on the Impact of On-demand publishing and Electronic Reserve in HEIs.

4. Academic Interest – In many institutions academic staff are still unconvinced of the benefits of moving to the use of digitised learning materials. Where they do wish to use new technologies for learning and teaching, academic staff are frequently unaware of the problems of copyright or other logistical issues related to their provision. However, this situation seems to be one which relates to critical mass. In institutions where provision of digitised materials for reading lists is well established, interest from academic staff appears to be growing steadily,

" We were intending to promote the Electronic Library within the University this year but have not needed to as every tutor whose material we originally worked with has wanted to extend the electronic access to other modules and the tutors themselves have promoted within their own schools. So we now have a scenario of actually having to stave people off …"
(HERON User )

5. Illustrations - HERON Users require clearance of illustrations within texts, as an essential part of the service, even though the additional work involved in illustrations clearance can cause considerable delays in the delivery of the requested item . (Where rights do not rest with the publisher, it can be difficult and costly to trace the rightsholder, and HERON may require to make higher charges in such cases.) Nevertheless this is an aspect of service which at present the CLA cannot provide.
     
    6. Invoices – There were concerns about the way in which invoices were provided and about the details invoices did and did not include.
     
    7. Value of HERON Service - The HERON service is needed and valued by its users, despite the teething problems the service has experienced. Several of the HERON members began by providing their own copyright clearance service. This was possible for small projects but once HEIs began to scale up their projects and were handling greater numbers of clearances, they recognised the volume of work this would entail and have turned to HERON to do the work for them.

2.2.7 Other forms of support for HERON members

Lis-hug

Lis-hug is a closed email discussion list for HERON members only. It is used largely to disseminate information about developments in the Service and HERON events. Members also use it to raise issues and seek information from colleagues.

Induction and Training

Since the start of service, HERON has held 6 Induction and Training Days, at various locations around the country. All new members of HERON are given the opportunity to attend for training. They may also contact HERON staff should they require assistance after this.

User Manual

At the start of service, HERON produced an instruction manual on use of the system. Due to changes to the way the system actually works (for detail see Section 2.2.8 below), this manual has now been completely revised and produced in a much more professional format. It has been distributed to all HERON users, is mounted on the web page and forms the basis of the Training sessions provided.

Web pages

The HERON web pages have also been developed over the year and can be accessed at www.heron.ac.uk. The site includes general information on the Project, as well as Information for Members, which is a password-protected part of the site, and can only be accessed by HERON members.

2.2.8 System Review

Between January and March 2000 the HERON team held a full system review. This was informed by the staff experience to that point, and by reaction from users both through HUG and by day to day contact. The intention of the review was to make recommendations on system improvements that would be required, and to attempt to estimate how much these might cost.

As part of this review, it became evident that the HERON system, as originally designed and tested by the HERON team, was not being used fully, but that a hybrid system was being used. This consisted of the HERON system supported by FileMaker. The Technical Unit at Napier had begun to use FileMaker to manage the workflow of the digitisation and delivery process, and this process was then supplemented by the Copyright Officers using FileMaker to manage their workflow. Currently, the FileMaker database is being used to provide data on requests, digitisation status and costs.

The principal reason that the prototype HERON system had proved not to work effectively for either staff or users was that it worked at pack rather than at extract level. The HERON system is now being used as a user request/pack submission system, and the method of checking availability in the database. It also holds the customer database which is used for authentication of users. FileMaker holds all the records to underpin the process (see also Section 2.2.9).

It is recognised that the HERON system as currently running can only be an interim solution, and detailed recommendations on modifications needed were made to the Project Board as part of the system review. Although not part of the original specification for the prototype system, it is also known that the present front-end system does not offer the functionality required to support all processes: for instance there is no rights management software, for storing and updating licence details.

The current database is built from user requests, verified by HERON staff, and search facilities are limited. We recognise that a quality database which allows location of known items and also subject or key word searching is crucial, and this will be an important part of any new system. In the meantime, we intend to upgrade the present records as well as new requests from users so that there is no backlog if it is decided to transfer data to an improved system.

A great deal of experience has been gained in the first year of service, which will help guide the specification for the second HERON system. There is now much more clarity over what will or will not work, and what users require of the system. The design of the revised HERON system will have to be considered as part of the forward strategy for the service (see Section 3.4 below).

One of the implications of the hybrid system currently running is that, as the integrated HERON system is no longer in use, it has been necessary for replacement elements of the system to be devised. For example, invoices would have been generated direct from the HERON system. As this was no longer possible, HERON staff at Stirling and Napier had to design a replacement invoicing system, and production of invoices is now done jointly by Napier and Stirling. In addition, the Technical Unit have had to devote considerable time to developing the FileMaker system in order that it could adequately support the service (see Section 2.2.9 for details).

2.2.9 Technical Unit

Work in the Technical Unit can be divided into two main areas – Digitisation and Technical Support.

Digitisation

During the course of the year, the Technical Unit obtained, scanned and digitised to PDF, 573 items.

To facilitate streamlined supply of originals, an arrangement was set up with the British Library Document Supply Centre (BLDSC) to supply HERON with Ariel files using the Lexicon service at a 50% discounted rate. Where BLDSC is unable to meet the requirements, the requesting HEI is asked to provide a clean paper copy. In this period, approximately 84% of material has been sourced from BLDSC.

HERON is currently reviewing the most cost-effective way of obtaining clean original copy and is investigating alternative sourcing (ie other than through BLDSC) directly with publishers and with journal suppliers.

Towards the end of the project year, arrangements were finalised to outsource the digitisation operation. This will enable the project to scale up digitisation activities to match the expected increase in the volume of requests to take advantage of the digitisation subsidy.

Document format was also a major issue. The Project had promoted use of PDF-Normal files which are basically OCR'd pages with small TIFF images inserted in place of suspect words. This format had been promoted because of concern for network printing. Evidence from the earlier SCOPE Project had pointed to this being a factor in low usage figures at some institutions.

PDF-Normal offered variable quality documents as well as raising concerns over liability and usability. One HE requested Image files, stating unsuitability for teaching with the Normal files as a prime reason. Their concern centred around the appearance caused by the insertion of images in place of suspects. The effect of bold text may have led students to believe that this was for emphasis.

In addition, the use of PDF-Normal files demanded a heavy commitment to quality assurance from the Unit staff. Research showed that users would not be deterred by having to handle the larger Image based files, and users expressed a general preference for them. As a result, all new requests are now being supplied with PDF-Image files, which can have search facilities added. The Technical staff are replacing the existing resource bank of PDF-Normal files with their Image counterparts. The change of format has removed the liability issue caused by potential errors in the OCR process.

Technical Support

In addition to providing general technical support to the HE members, the Technical Unit has developed a status service, whereby users can check the progress of their requests. This is password protected in order to offer privacy to HE transactions. This is due to be made available to members at the start of the next academic session.

The Unit has also been developing a workflow management database which is used by the HERON team to assist in the copyright clearance, digitisation and document delivery processes (see Section 2.2.8 for further details). The system is also currently being used to produce invoices for HERON users although an associated database is being considered for this function. This would allow the more specialised financial processes to be separated from the more general workflow issues.

In response to some earlier requests for support, the Technical Unit also developed a simple document delivery tool, carrying the working title of ‘Triffid’. This was shown to users at a HUG meeting and copies were handed out for evaluation. One if HERON’s members is still using Triffid on a test basis, and it is hoped that evaluation of its use will be valuable in further development. In general, however, demand for Triffid at that time was insufficient to justify additional development time in Year 2.

2.2.10 Additional JISC grant: Digitisation Subsidy

Towards the end of 1999, JISC made additional funds available for projects for the enhancement of learning and teaching under call 5/99 and HERON submitted proposals in response, resulting in the award of an additional grant for the enhancement of the resource bank.

This additional grant is £83,500 in total over a period of 19 months from January 1999 to July 2001.

In awarding this grant, it was recognised that HERON faced a double challenge:
 

Two methods of subsidy were proposed for the resource bank:
 

These two were not mutually exclusive, but would be used in combination.

Speculative digitisation

HERON has worked with the Association of Business Schools (ABS) on a pilot exercise to identify heavily used core texts in Marketing. The intention is to negotiate with rightsholders of these texts for clearance, digitisation and storage in the resource bank.

The ABS conducted a survey of its members in order to identify these texts. There was a disappointingly low response, and all of the respondents requested clearance of full text rather than extracts. This will inevitably mean that clearance will be more difficult to achieve. To provide additional information, HERON then checked the ABS responses with members of the British Business Schools Librarians Group. It is now probable that HERON will identify suitable texts for speculative digitisation through both of these sets of data, in conjunction with a ‘master’ reading list being amalgamated by Blackwells from this years reading lists submitted to them.

Work to identify texts for digitisation in the area of Health Sciences is also ongoing. Meetings with Nursing representatives have indicated that HERON might choose to concentrate on Pre-Registration courses, especially the Common Foundation elements, in view of the impending modifications to the national curriculum. Information and reading lists have been provided by several of the HERON member institutions, and from the Royal College of Nursing. This data is currently being analysed.

Discounted digitisation

In the first instance, HERON members were offered free digitisation up to 31st July 2000. This has now been extended up to 31st October 2000 to allow as many users as possible to take advantage of it. This was used both as an additional incentive to join HERON, and as an incentive for users to place more orders than might otherwise have been the case.

There has certainly been a surge in membership numbers, which may or may not have happened in any case. We also believe that the HERON Administrators in member institutions are keen to submit as many requests as possible during the period of the subsidy, and HERON has organised temporary staff to deal with any large increase in demand. However, delivery in electronic rather than paper form does not alter the fact the requests are usually based on current reading lists, and, within member universities, delays in receiving these from academic staff has delayed submission of requests to HERON.

Over the next year HERON staff will continue to work in collaboration with professional bodies on the identification of suitable texts, and will also use other sources as a guide to which texts to digitise, including Blackwells reading lists. It is also intended that Blackwells publisher liaison staff will conduct negotiations with rightsholders regarding the possibility of clearance of full text for storage in the resource bank.

2.2.11 Personnel

It is notable that the achievements of the past year have been made against a background of gaps in staffing earlier in the year. Both the Liaison Officer and Project Assistant at Stirling left in July 1999, and were not replaced until December. In addition, both the Copyright and Marketing Officers at Blackwells had to be taken off work on HERON due to the joint venture with SWETS, and were not available to HERON for the majority of the second year.

Blackwells Copyright Officer was replaced in March 2000, and in addition, the Technical Assistant Post at Napier was filled in September 1999.

Discounting the Database Editor post (which will be filled when required) and the Technical Assistant post (which was filled as required), these vacancies resulted in approximately 310 lost days to HERON, or approximately 16% of the total available.

As was highlighted in the Annual Report for 1998/99, HERON is fortunate in having staff who are both hard working and flexible, and who have remained enthusiastic despite the considerable pressures they have been under to maintain the service.

2.2.12 Project Board

During the past year there has been a number of changes to the membership of the Board. From Blackwells, Suzanne Wilson-Higgins resigned and was replaced by William Pettinger, Finance and IT Director. Jonathan Darby, Director, Technology Assisted Lifelong Learning, University of Oxford joined the Board as an additional member, as did the Project Managers, Ted Steele and Cathie Moir. Towards the end of the year, Jane Core, one of the JISC representatives on the Board also resigned. Discussions have been held with JISC on her replacement.
 
  Future Developments of HERON

3.1 Years. 2 and 3 – Requests for underwriting

There was no requirement to call on underwriting in Year 2. During that year uncertainties arose regarding the future of HERON.

By January and February 00, it was clear that there was enthusiasm for HERON in the HE sector, and that the concept of a one stop shop was highly regarded. Indeed, many universities were counting on the support of HERON to develop electronic delivery of text to students. However, as previously noted, most HEIs were new to electronic reserve, and still testing their own procedures. This resulted in low volumes of requests being placed and, therefore, less income for HERON than anticipated.

In order to provide an affordable environment in which HEIs could test electronic delivery, HERON had also subsidised the subscription fee for the first year of service to only £240 plus VAT. As the original intention had been to charge an FTE related fee, this also lowered HERON’s projected income. Although not economic for HERON, the low fee did help to encourage HEIs to join HERON, and raise our profile in the sector. It has also become clear that HEIs are still piloting delivery of electronic extracts to students, and given the volume of requests they are prepared to make at the present time, it would be difficult to charge higher subscriptions.

In addition, collaboration over developing services with the CLA was slow, and a number of complex legal issues had to be worked through. This did not prevent service, as the CLA worked with HERON even although the agreement was not signed.

3.2 HEI owned texts

From the proposal stage, HERON has aimed to "offer opportunities to universities and colleges to market their own learning resources (HERON original proposal 2/97). The inclusion of HEI owned material in the resource bank has always been considered to be desirable, for several reasons: as a service to HEIs both as authors and users, and as a possible income generator for HERON. It has not proved possible however to make the headway we had expected: partly because the management team's efforts had to be diverted elsewhere, and also on account of the restricted service available to date. It is not yet possible to offer the incentives of extensive marketing on a commercial scale and the realistic prospect of immediate royalties. (It should be noted that HERON intended to be a working repository and not primarily an archive.)

The new HEI Texts Liaison Officer reviewed the groundwork of his predecessor and undertook a further small scale survey of staff at South Bank University. He also considered the conclusions of the earlier Catriona surveys. The two sets do not necessarily coincide, probably due to the small sample of the SBU survey conducted largely in a 'modern/new' University context.

The overall conclusions of the SBU survey are:

The main conclusions as impacting HERON HEI texts from the Catriona II survey of 437 staff responses from 6 HEIs comprising new, modern and ancient universities are seen as follows:


For the present, HERON is continuing to investigate the issues, and to identify potential materials. The position will be reconsidered at the September Board meeting, and in discussion with JISC, in view of its stated desire to develop a national electronic archive of HEI texts.

3.3 HERON, the DNER and JISC

It is important that HERON discusses its place in the DNER with Programme staff in the near future. HERON can contribute to the DNER vision as set out by the Chair of JISC’s Content Working Group recently:

HERON’s unique service allows individual academics to select what materials they deem most suitable – and once, digitised they are stored in the resource bank and available for others.

HERON’s experience can contribute to JISC activities (actual and proposed) in many areas mentioned at the January Workshop on Electronic Collections, for instance:

HERON is raising awareness of the potential of digitised texts on demand and can work with PELICAN to influence payment and usage models. It also gives advice and guidance on technical issues and fosters the sharing of experience among institutions.

HERON is of course keen to learn from the experience of others working in similar areas.

3.4 The future for HERON

While there is very considerable interest in HERON and no shortage of potential members, the volume of usage within individual HEIs remains low. The reasons for this have been discussed elsewhere in the report but include:

In consequence, HERON is still only covering a small proportion of its costs.

At present however, HERON’s sights are set considerably higher. Discussions on exit strategy have continued throughout Year 2 and it appears that a common understanding of the issues and possible types of exit routes has been reached, following an away-day for Board members and project staff in July. The HERON vision is ambitious. It must be recognised that there is no certainty at this stage that an attractive financial model can be found. Nevertheless, for now, despite growing competition, there is a conviction that HERON has a unique product and an unrivalled position in the HE market; there is a strong will amongst all the partners for it to succeed.

CJM/CAGR

31 August 00
 
 

Appendix I
Conferences and Exhibitions Attended

Presentation by Sally Curry and Cathie Moir ILT Annual Conference Workshop, 27th June 2000, College of Ripon and York St John, York

Presentation on HERON by Sally Curry and Ted Steele to CALIM (The Consortium of Academic Libraries in Manchester), 12th June 2000, University of Manchester

Presentation on HERON by Sally Curry to University Health Librarians Conference, 16th May 2000, University of Derby

Presentation on HERON by Sally Curry at UC&R Study Conference "Designing the Learning Landscape: academic librarians in the context of educational change." March 30th – April 1st 2000, Edinburgh

Presentation on HERON by the HERON team to CAUL and CONZUL Study Visit (Council of Australian University Librarians and Council of New Zealand University Librarians), 13th April 2000, University of Stirling

Presentation on HERON by Lynda Agili to the CIEL Conference, 26th November 1999, Southampton

Presentation on HERON by Carolyn Rowlinson at the TECUP Workshop, 29th October 1999, Deutsche Bibliothek, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

George Pitcher attended TECUP Workshops as part of their Technical Advisory Group on 29th October 1999 and 29th February 2000, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. The aim of the TAG was to study different approaches by projects and services across the world, culminating in the production of a Matrix and supporting lists of projects and services. The Matrix and other papers may be viewed at http://www.sub.uni-goettingen.de/gdz/tecup/.

Blackwells Supplier Day Information sheet given out to publishers at the Blackwells Supplier Day, 30th September 1999, Oxford
 
 

Presentations to Universities and Colleges

Presentation by Sally Curry to library staff at the Scottish Agricultural College, 15th August 2000, Aberdeen

Presentation by Sally Curry to library staff at University of Sunderland, 14th August 2000

Presentation by Sally Curry to Digital Library Manager and senior library staff at University of Central England, 7th August 2000, Birmingham

Presentation by Sally Curry to library staff at Bournemouth University, 28th June 2000

Presentation by Sally Curry to library staff at University of Central Lancashire, 22nd May 2000, Preston

Presentation by Sally Curry to academic and library staff at Edge Hill, 13th June 2000, Ormskirk

Presentations by Sally Curry to Robert Gordon University Strategic Management Team/Top Management Team and Library Staff, 18th May 2000, Aberdeen

Presentation by Sally Curry to academic and library staff at De Montfort University, Leicester, 28th March 2000, Leicester

Presentation by Sally Curry to academic and library staff at Glasgow Caledonian University, 22 March 2000, Glasgow

Presentation by Sally Curry to library staff at University of Abertay, Dundee, 2nd March 2000, Dundee

Presentation by Sally Curry to IT group of Scottish Confederation of University and Research Libraries (SCURL) at University of Abertay, Dundee, 18th February 2000, Dundee

Presentation by Sally Curry to library staff at University of Stirling, 16th February 2000, Stirling

Presentation to library staff at Oxford University, 2nd November 1999, Oxford

Presentation to library staff at University of the West of England, 29th October 1999, Bristol
 
 

Articles Published

James Endicott & Andrew Hampson"A pilot electronic short loan service using HERON", 21 June 2000
Available online from the BUILDER website.

Carolyn Rowlinson, "Supporting learning through on-demand and electronic reserve services", Collection Building, 2000, 19 (2), pp. 56-60
Available online from the Emerald Library.

Lisa McRory & Sally Curry, "Higher Education Resources On-demand - the HERON service", VINE, 2000, 118, pp. 35-38

Leah Halliday, "Copyright and Digitisation in UK HEIs", VINE, 2000, 118, pp. 27-34

David McMenemy, "Electronic document delivery: service takes flight online", LA Record, August 1999, 101 (8), p. 466
Available online from Library Assocation Record, Online Articles

David McMenemy, "Expanding access to learning materials in higher education", Information Management and Technology, July 1999, 32(4), pp. 169-172

Helen Pickering & David McMenemy, "Widening the SCOPE: Higher Education Resource ON-demand (HERON)", Program, July 1999, 33(3), pp. 213-224
 

In Press

Article by Sally Curry for the Sconul Newsletter (Issue 20, Summer/Autumn 2000)
 
 

In addition, the LITC website promotes HERON at: http://www.sbu.ac.uk/litc/