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Scottish Collaborative On-demand Publishing Enterprise

Activities

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Activities Aims and achievements
Copyright Unit
Technical Unit
Electronic discussion lists rule


Structure

Documents

SCOPE home page

SCOPE Copyright Unit

In the initial stages of the project SCOPE resources have comprised journal articles and extracts from books. It is the responsibility of the Copyright Officer to seek to negotiate a set of model agreements with publishers under the guidance of a Copyright Advisory Panel consisting of experts in electronic copyright, publishing and bookselling. Negotiation on the terms of these model agreements is lengthy but when agreements are in place copyright materials may be added to the SCOPE resource bank by permission of the copyright holder but on the terms of the previously signed contract. Thus, the copyright clearance procedure is streamlined and SCOPE activities are more efficient.

In year 2 of the project SCOPE will include in the electronic resource bank, original teaching materials written by academics at SCOPE consortium member institutions. This will give Leah an opportunity to investigate copyright issues and ownership within higher education institutions.

Library liaison activities also are coordinated from the SCOPE Copyright Unit. A representative from each of the SCOPE consortium member institution libraries attends regular meetings at the University of Stirling. These meetings are chaired by Cate Newton, Collections Manager at the University library in St Andrews. Through these meetings, all of the consortium member institutions contribute to SCOPE development plans.

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SCOPE Technical Unit

The SCOPE Technical Unit is staffed by the Production Manager, George Pitcher. George is responsible for data organization, course pack production and text provision over the network. To visit the homepage of the SCOPE Technical Unit click here.

Go to the SCOPE home page

SCOPE Aims and achievements

Copyright Unit

The SCOPE project was scheduled to run for three years from May 1995. Over the first year of the project, SCOPE produced five 300-page course packs for undergraduate sociology students at two consortium member institutions. In Autumn 1995, owing to a very tight schedule in the first stage of the project, the content of these packs was photocopied, by permission of the Copyright Licensing Agency. In Spring 1996 a majority of items included in packs was digitized and printed in SCOPE format, the remainder was photocopied. To produce these course packs SCOPE sought permission to use copyright material from nearly 60 rights holders. Mobilization in this area started slowly but at the end of the first year, SCOPE can report significant success. We have now agreed terms that will allow us to deliver to students core reading materials both online and in course packs, at an affordable rate. We can now progress, in year 2 of the project, towards online delivery of materials and exploration of the practical problems of electronic publishing.

Technical Unit

Over Year 1 of the project, George Pitcher has equipped the Technical Unit to digitize material included among SCOPE resources. He has also been liaising with library technical staff at SCOPE Consortium member institutions with a view to developing a system for delivering electronic resources that suits a majority of institutions. The SCOPE electronic copyright management and document delivery system, Cactus, will be tested at Stirling University during the spring semester of 1997 and will be piloted at one or more institutions during the autumn semester.

Evaluation

Perhaps the most important element of the SCOPE project is evaluation. We are generating considerable data on issues that increasingly will concern the whole higher education sector and those supplying teaching and learning materials to that sector. Evaluation activities must be timely and relevant. The SCOPE team has attempted to identify the key stakeholders concerned with the project and, in consultation with them, to determine the issues most important in planning evaluation activities. If you have comments on the SCOPE Evaluation Plan please contact the SCOPE team at the address below.

Project aims

  • To develop an electronic resource bank of book chapters, journal articles and additional materials supplied by academics at SCOPE consortium member institutions.
  • To allow students to purchase (at an affordable cost) course packs based on reading lists supplied by their lecturers.
  • To offer users online access to the resource bank in the later stages of the project.
  • To conclude model agreements with publishers.
  • To monitor the impact of SCOPE and to assess the long-term value of such a service to academics, students, publishers, booksellers, librarians and others in the academic information delivery chain.

Benefits of the SCOPE Project

  • Academics may select readings tailored to support their individual teaching.
  • Even if out of print, course material can be easily updated.
  • Students can buy their own copies of recommended readings for use as and when required. This will reduce pressure on library short-loan collections.
  • Savings by libraries may be used to purchase a wider range of titles.
  • Publishers will receive a fee for each extract printed in a course pack and for each copy made by a student from the online resource bank.
  • Publishers will receive information about how students use electronic media in academic libraries.

Achievements and Milestones

Results in Year 1 (1995/96) include:

  • Outstanding sales of course packs in Autumn 1995.
  • No loss in sales of commercially published texts used for the same course, but significant additional revenue for publishers and booksellers.
  • Lower, but still significant sales in Spring 1996 when the pack price was increased above £20.
  • Identification of factors affecting sales.
  • Average rate of copyright fee per page reduced between Autumn 1995 and Spring 1996.
  • Permission to digitize copyright materials granted for a majority of the content of packs.
  • After protracted negotiation, agreements in place with a range of publishers to include material in the SCOPE electronic resource bank with a further reduction in royalty rates.

Plans for Year 2 (1996/97)

  • To continue negotiation on the detail of the SCOPE model contract with those publishers who have not yet agreed terms on which SCOPE may include their material in the electronic resource bank.
  • To broaden the range of subjects and to include among SCOPE resources material for a subject such as engineering which would be more technically challenging on account of its graphical content.
  • To extend the project into at least four institutions.
  • To include among SCOPE resources text produced by academics at member institutions and to investigate the willingness of institutions to share such materials.
  • To offer customized publishing at local sites.
  • To develop a suitable delivery system prior to full implementation in Year 3.
  • To review database maintenance procedures, and routines for weeding and updating the electronic resource bank.
  • To evaluate the various stages of the project in line with the SCOPE Evaluation Plan and paying particular attention to:
    • demand for printed packs vis-à-vis online delivery;
    • all aspects of online delivery;
    • in Years 2 and 3, carrying out a cost–benefit analysis to determine whether libraries and academic departments could better support teaching and learning by subsidizing SCOPE resources as compared to paying for traditional services.
    • continuing actively to promote SCOPE and to disseminate information on project progress to all stakeholders.

SCOPE plans for Year 3 (1997/98)

  • Implementation of an online delivery system.
  • Investigation of the feasibility of links to online public access catalogues (OPACs).
  • Development of a strategy for migration beyond the Project timeframe.

Go to the SCOPE home page

Electronic discussion lists

Issues raised by on-demand publishing in academic libraries are discussed on the electronic discussion list lis-on-demand. Lis-on-demand should be used to disseminate news on and discuss any issue relating to on-demand publishing in academic libraries, e.g. copyright and technical issues and cultural change in higher education institutions. SCOPE also has its own list, lis-scope, for discussing issues raised by the project. To join either of these lists send a message containing only the following text (substituting appropriately) to mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk: join listname firstname(s) lastname.

Go to the SCOPE home page