Seminar on electronic course materials
University of Helsinki October 24th 2001
HERON 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
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
2
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
3
The HERON Partnership

University of Stirling

Napier University (Edinburgh)

South Bank University (London)

(Blackwell Retail Ltd: Aug 1998 - July
2001)
4
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
5
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
6
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
7
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
8
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
9
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
10
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)
11
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
12
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
13
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’
14
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
15
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
16
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’
17
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
18
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
19
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
20
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
21
Case Study 2: Institute of Education
Autumn 2000



Autumn 2001
4 modules
29 extracts

Now funded by the
programmes that use
them


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’
22
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
23
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’
24
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
25
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
26
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
27
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
28
The UK University Experience
The identification of key issues for
universities in the provision of digitised
extracts for students
29
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
30
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
31
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?
32
Sally Curry, HERON Project Manager
email: s.g.curry@stir.ac.uk
tel: +44 (0)1786 466 616
http://www.heron.ac.uk
33