Dear Jane
I wrote a bit on e-signatures in "Interlending and document supply in
Britain today" so this is a bit from what I put there.
E-signatures have to comply with the the provisions of the Electronic
Communications Act, 2000 which is the legislation which makes them legal.
They have to be authentic - ie the person who sent it really did send it
and have integrity, ie they cannot be tampered with over the internet. So
any username password system should have both. Usually usernames and
passwords can be linked to a named individual but unless there is some sort
of encryption then they won't satisfy the second part - the integrity bit.
Most library systems don't do this yet but they are getting closer with
Single sign on and Shibboleth.
Hope this helps
Jean
--On 09 March 2006 09:51 +0000 "J.C.Bramley" <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> Dear All,
> I am sorry I know this is a subject that has been discussed
> before but I could do with some help! An academic librarian in our
> Library is convinced that it is possible for requests for photocopies of
> journal articles be made electronically without the need of a written
> signature. I have tried to explain that for copyright purposes a written
> signature is needed but he informs me that he has located a University
> that is accepting electronic signatures. Basically they sign up for the
> ILL service and are given a user name and password, then they use these
> to make requests, on each request they have to tick a box that states the
> requests complys with copyright laws and at no stage is a written
> signature required.
> I think he must be mistaken as I am unsure that this would be acceptable
> for copyright purposes. I would appreciate any replies that would help me
> make my case that written signatures are still a necessity in the ILL
> process and the electronic signature has not been "cracked" yet.
> Regards
> Jane Bramley
> Inter-library loans
> Loughborough University
----------------------
Jean I. Bradford
Serials and Inter-Library Document Supply
University of Bristol Information Services
Arts and Social Sciences Library
Tyndall Avenue
Bristol BS8 1TJ
Tel: 0117 928 8008 Fax: 0117 925 5334
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