 |
SCOPE is administered by the Follett Implementation
Group on Information Technology
(FIGIT) and funded by
the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC).
SCOPE is an
on-demand publishing project in
the Electronic Libraries Programme (eLib). |
SCOPE Information
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, Leah
Halliday, 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.
Go to the SCOPE home page
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
(Library representative in parentheses)
University of Aberdeen (Angela Carr)
University of Abertay, Dundee (Alison Gordon,)
University of Edinburgh (David Ferro)
University of Glasgow (Helen Durndell)
University of Paisley (Teresa Willmott)
University of St Andrews (Cate Newton)
University of Stirling (Liz Martin)
University of Strathclyde, Glasgow (Nick Joint)
Glasgow Caledonian University (John Crawford)
Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh (Michael Breaks)
Napier University, Edinburgh (Ian Crossland)
Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen (Keith Fraser)
Queen Margaret College, Edinburgh (Vicki Cormi)
Go to the SCOPE home page
SCOPE Project Board
Bruce Royan
Chief Executive, Scottish Cultural Resources Access Network (SCRAN)
Carolyn Rowlinson (Project Coordinator/acting Director)
Associate Librarian, University of Stirling
Alice Colban
JISC Secretariat Officer
Cate Newton
Collections Manager, The Library, University of St Andrews
Chris Pinder
Depute Librarian, Napier University, Edinburgh
Go to the SCOPE home page
SCOPE Project Team
Carolyn Rowlinson email c.a.g.rowlinson@stir.ac.uk
SCOPE Project Coordinator / Acting Project Director, University of Stirling
Terry Williams email t.j.williams@stir.ac.uk
SCOPE Copyright Officer, University of Stirling
George Pitcher email g.pitcher@napier.ac.uk
SCOPE Production Manager, Napier University, Edinburgh
Helen Pickering email helen.pickering@stir.ac.uk
SCOPE Liaison Officer, University of Stirling
Sheena Conroy email s.a.conroy@stir.ac.uk
SCOPE Secretary, University of Stirling
Go to the SCOPE home page
SCOPE Copyright Advisory Panel
Professor Charles Oppenheim (Chair)
Co-Director, International Institute of Electronic Library Research, De Monfort
University, Milton Keynes
Professor Alistair McCleery
Head of Department, Department of Print Media, Publishing and Communication,
Napier University, Edinburgh
Dr Ian McGowan
Centre for Publishing Studies, University of Stirling
Chris Sugden
Retail Branches Manager, John Smith Book shops and Chair of the College and
University Book sellers Group of the Booksellers Association
Go to the SCOPE home page
SCOPE Technical Advisory Panel
Angus Annan
Associate Director, Computer and Media Services Division, Information
Services, University of Stirling
Gordon Dunsire
Library Systems Officer, Napier University, Edinburgh
George McMurdo
Department of Information and Communication Studies, Queen Margaret
College, Edinburgh
Mike Storie
Department of Print Media, Publishing and Communication, Napier University, Edinburgh
Chris Sugden
Retail Branches Manager, John Smith Bookshops and Chair of the College and
University Book sellers Group of the Booksellers Association
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
Page created by Leah Halliday, SCOPE Copyright Officer. Email l.l.halliday@stir.ac.uk.
Last updated on 27 August 1997.