Dear All,
 
I am forwarding this on behalf of a colleague.  
 
Please reply to her ([log in to unmask]) and not to me.
 
 
Thanks,
 
 
 
 
Keith
 
Keith Nockels MA MCLIP
Information Librarian
Clinical Sciences Library
University of Leicester
PO Box 65
Leicester LE2 7LX
England - UK
Tel. +44 (0)116 252 3101
Email: [log in to unmask]  


________________________________

Dear All

One of my colleagues found the Item below by Sandy Norman - I was
wondering if anyone knows of UK libraries that are operating an Inter
Library Loan system where the requesting folk dont have to physically
sign the request but use some electronic system - i.e. Library
Membership Number and PIN or something like that, which identifies them
as a particular individual.  I know the pilot NHS document supply system
did something like this but would welcome news of any other library,
particularly UK Universities who have grasped this nettle. Please reply
off list if you prefer.

Best wishes and sorry this isn't a Friday funny!

 

Sarah

 

Sarah Sutton
Clinical Librarian
A&E, Cancer, Children's Services, Diabetes Care
Clinical Sciences Library
LRI
PO Box 65
Leicester
LE2 7LX
 0116 2523290 (Dial 7093290 from any UHL extn)
[log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask]


June 2002 

Under Section 7 of the Electronic Communications Act 2000, electronic
signatures or e-signatures are made legally admissible in the UK.
Librarians have for a long time been asking whether the prescribed
library copyright declaration forms may be received electronically so
this appeared to be good news. In June last year, a delegation from LACA
had a meeting with the Copyright Directorate of the Patent Office to
ascertain if that really did mean that copyright declaration forms,
which are required to be signed by a requester, may be received
electronically and if so, did the library and archives regulations
(S.I.1212:1989) have to be amended to incorporate this. The Patent
Office took over a year to think about it but has now confirmed that, in
their understanding, the regulations already cover e-signatures and so
the S.I. would not need to be changed. In the S.I., it states that the
signature of the person requiring a copy of a copyright item must be in
"writing". "Writing" is defined in the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act 1988 (S.178) as including any form of notation or code, whether by
hand or otherwise. It is believed, therefore, that the signature can be
in electronic form. This argument is helped by the fact that the S.I.
does not require the exact form A to be used as long as the declaration
is substantially the same as given in form A. 

So, we could have accepted e-signatures on declaration forms for years?
No, as the signature has to be personal. If the declaration form is
received electronically how can a personal signature be achieved? The
signature, therefore, would have to clearly identify the individual and
must not easily be used by others. The Patent Office says that deciding
what form of e-signature fulfils these criteria is a matter for experts
in the area. The Electronic Signatures Directive defines "electronic
signature" to mean "data in electronic form which are attached to or
legally associated with other electronic data and which serve as a
method of authentication". This may be too broad a definition to satisfy
the requirement for a personal signature. However, the Directive goes on
to define an "advanced electronic signature" which appears to satisfy a
requirement for a personal signature as it has to be "uniquely linked to
and capable of identifying the signatory". 

To sum up, it looks like librarians may receive declaration forms
electronically as long as the personal signature requirement is
fulfilled. This means that the signature has to have some unique link to
the requester e.g. linked to some form of authentication system. LACA
would be pleased to hear about any system set up to do this. 

Sandy Norman 
CILIP Copyright Adviser 

Updated: 30 June 2006 

 

 

 


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