MBA texts online

Five full-text MBA books were provided in electronic format by the publishers. SCOPE made them available across all the CMIs, backed up with promotion via the Library Representatives, and with technical support and guidance from SCOPE itself as to how to access and use the material. Background research had already established that none of these texts were heavily used by any of the SCOPE CMIs. This gave us no critical mass to work with, but we did succeed in generating some interest from lecturers wanting to have a look at what was on offer.

Usage
Abertay Dundee University:
Requested and installed the necessary software and confirmed that they could view the materials, but no further use was made.

Glasgow Caledonian University:
Had some interest, but reported verbally that the return on text usage would be too small to justify the extra workload on an already overstretched IT infrastructure and human support team. This would also apply to any service requiring (as does SCOPE) the installation and support of extra software, so it was not just the minimal interest of the particular texts which was a problem. The opinion was expressed that straightforward delivery over the Web would make is possible to use the service.

Aberdeen:
Requested and installed the necessary software and staff were able to view the materials.

Stirling:
One text only was in heavy demand, and this by the Department of History. The lack of critical mass meant that the department did not feel it worth learning to use the system in order to make use of this one text.

It is difficult to draw any really useful conclusions from the exercise as, due probably to the generally low interest in the texts concerned, SCOPE was unable to arouse more than a passing desire to look at the material. It is felt that texts with a higher general usage in print format would definitely command an interested online audience.

Cactus development
It was necessary to develop a security feature to allow access to these materials across all CMIs. This meant devising some additional routines in order to facilitate printing of SCOPE documents by unregistered users. The material was listed separately in HTML pages rather than by database lookup. These pages pointed to documents which could be accessed by users within CMIs. A counting routine monitored usage.

Conclusion
From a practical point of view, the project benefited from the exercise, in that it enabled the project team to compare the work and time involved in handling print materials for online delivery with that of material already in electronic format. There is no doubt that receipt of electronic text direct from rightsholders is a considerable advantage, and it is hoped that this will be a developing trend.

July 1998

Appendix XVI a

SCOPE Customised Printing (a) - customised course pack production and delivery on-demand
(8 April 1997; revised 11 May 1997 Leah Halliday)

The contents of course packs produced by SCOPE over the first 18 months of the Project, were selected by lecturers and packs were printed in bulk for sale at John Smith campus booksellers. During Year 2 of the Project, the SCOPE team have considered alternative means of producing and delivering customized course packs on-demand. The content of these packs would be selected by individual students to suit their specific requirement; packs would be produced to order and delivered to the student within 24 hours. On 3 March 1997, GP supplied SCOPE team members with a document outlining alternative means of producing and distributing course packs on-demand. The team agreed that distribution through the book shop or some other body equipped to handle financial transactions would be most appropriate; SCOPE would prefer not to be responsible for recovering or administering payment for individual items.

The team agreed that CR and LH should meet with Chris Sugden of John Smith booksellers to discuss distribution of customized packs and LH was asked to establish whether SCOPE resources could legitimately be produced at the book shop under the terms of SCOPE contracts with publishers.

On 11 March, Carolyn Rowlinson and LH met with CS and John Gray of John Smith to discuss the role of the book shop in producing and delivering customized course packs. It became clear, during the course of the discussion, that packs could be produced on book shop premises within the terms of SCOPE contracts with publishers, as pack contents could be ordered only by students using an authorized password; book shop staff would not be responsible for initiating the production process. CS made it clear that JS would welcome the opportunity to print and/or distribute customized course packs but considers the following to be important conditions :

1. that students have the facility to select pack contents from the resource bank at any Cactus machine and redirect printing to a printer in the book shop; the book shop do not intend to invest in expensive hardware at this early stage when profit generated from customized course packs is unlikely to justify the expense
2. that packs will be delivered to the book shop within 24 hours of an order being placed
3. that a student ordering a pack should receive a receipt which lists pack contents and price
4. that the name and matriculation number of the student ordering a pack, and the price of the pack, be printed on the outside cover so that any specific pack may be easily identified by book shop staff when a student presents her/his order receipt
5. that prints be available only in the book shop; CS does not consider it viable to distribute prints at the book shop if prints are available also in the library (and probably at a lower rate)
6. that students have the facility to select one or more items to be printed in a pack

The first of these points assumes that SCOPE resources would be printed on book shop premises. The SCOPE team are aware of the disadvantages of printing course packs elsewhere for distribution at the book shop; workload at the technical unit and the cost of postage are two important considerations. Nevertheless, there are drawbacks also to printing and distributing in the book shop.
First, as the book shop will not invest in a duplex printer, text and images would be printed on one side of each page. Course packs produced in this way would appear unprofessional and may raise environmental concerns among students; organized boycotting of SCOPE resources would be disastrous for the project.

Second, the team was concerned about the related conditions numbered 5 and 6 above. SCOPE is attempting to develop alternative means of delivering teaching and learning materials in academic libraries. When SCOPE resources are produced for a new course, the team would expect the library to invest far less than is usual in traditional resource provision. Thus, for new courses, SCOPE may be the only convenient way of accessing specific recommended readings. Unlike traditional resources which students may photocopy within fair dealing limits, hard copies from the SCOPE resource bank would be available only as authorized prints. Students are unlikely to be satisfied with library provision if such prints are available only at the book shop and for fee, especially as that fee would include the cost of binding even for a print of a single article. While the SCOPE team appreciates CS's concern that the book shop could not compete with resources that may be printed more cheaply in the library, the team cannot warrant exclusive distribution through the book shop. If customized packs delivered on-demand are feasible, packs may be distributed through the book shop but students must also have the facility to print single documents as required in the library or at other workstations where the SCOPE Cactus system is installed.

Clearly, there are a number of hurdles to be overcome before course packs may be printed and distributed from the book shop. Two further problems must be resolved before course packs of a suitable quality may feasibly be printed on-demand anywhere outwith the SCOPE Technical Unit. The first relates to the Cactus system and how students will access SCOPE resources. A student will be required to key in her/his name and password (matriculation number) to gain access to each individual document. This restriction is designed to prevent unauthorized access; a student who logs on to the SCOPE system and leaves the workstation without logging off will not leave the system open to the next student at that workstation. Assuming that students will wish to view documents before choosing to pay for them, selection of, e.g. 10 documents to be printed in a course pack will be a cumbersome process.

Second, it is essential that SCOPE establish some means of paginating and reformatting pages mechanically and on-demand. At present, pages in the resource bank are formatted as rectos (right-hand pages). Materials selected for course packs are reformatted manually for duplex printing. GP will report to the SCOPE Project Board on 21 May re. availability of software for pagination and reformatting on-demand.

Having considered these issues, the SCOPE team agreed that it will not be feasible to produce course packs on-demand during Stage 5 of the Project. Prints from the SCOPE resource bank will be available only within the university at workstations where Cactus is installed. Nevertheless, the SCOPE team will endeavour to overcome the problems described above and to offer customized course-pack production on-demand before the Project end date in May 1998.

Appendix XVI b

SCOPE Customised Printing (b) - customised coursepacks: production and distribution
(George Pitcher 3 March 1997)

Production
1 Direct
Methodology
The client selects the required (priced) documents from a web-based form. Client is returned a confirmation page indicating selected articles, prices and complete price including binding and distribution costs. Client confirms order. Technical Unit produces coursepack and distributes by agreed method.

Advantages

• quick response (subject to workload)
• meets client's needs
• profit element can be retained or price reduced
• watermarking may be implemented as user's name could be used
• can be implemented within terms of current contracts

  Disadvantages
  

• not scaleable
• possibly labour intensive (automation is being studied)
• payment could be difficult to recover
• could prove expensive in a commercial (post-project) environment

2 Bookshop
Methodology
The client selects the required (priced) documents from a web-based form or a printed form in the bookshop. Client is advised of costs. Client confirms order. Bookshop downloads documents from SCOPE server and prints and binds document. Client collects document and pays bookshop.

Advantages

• no additional work for Technical Unit
• meets client's needs
• can use existing Cactus framework
• no distribution cost
• payment easy to recover
• could offer competitive pricing

  Disadvantages
  

• bookshop will require mark-up
• labour costs may be high
• SCOPE may lose control of pricing
• watermarking would only show bookshop details for all clients using this method
• widens possibility of abuse
• requires alteration to existing contracts

Advantages

• no additional work for Technical Unit
• meets client's needs
• can use existing Cactus framework
• no distribution cost
• payment easy to recover
• could offer competitive pricing
• could generate additional revenue for institution

  Disadvantages
  

• institution may require mark-up
• labour costs may be high
• additional work for library/department
• SCOPE may lose control of pricing
• watermarking would only show institution details for all clients using this method
• widens possibility of abuse
• requires alteration to existing contracts

Distribution
Distribution is taken care of should option 2 or 3 be selected. Only option 1 requires further consideration.

1 Distribution by Technical Unit
The Technical Unit could post complete documents direct to client. This will reduce the cost of distribution. However, payment may prove difficult to recover.

2 Distribution by Bookshop/Institution
In order for the bookshop/institution to be in a position to distribute the document to users, the document must first be posted to the bookshop/institution. This can only result in increased costs as a mark-up is almost inevitable. However, this could be compensated by simplifying payment recovery.

Costings
The costings are for a hypothetical 200 page document bound and distributed by post to bookshop/institution. This is a production cost - copyright charges, if necessary, will have to be applied.

This cost does not take account of any labour or equipment costs. Only materials/ and consumables have been included. No account has been taken of the amount which may need to be added by the distributer.

Conclusions
Unless it is simple for contracts to be altered, the most cost-effective method appears to be production via Technical Unit and distribution via the bookshop or institution. It may be possible to offer distribution through the library where a bookshop does not exist.