Dear Anthony
I think I understood what was happening but it seems to me that BL have
totally misunderstood what I and other ILL librarians are saying. We are
not asking you to continue in the same way as before.
Bristol use the same supplier as BL when we want to make copies for our
own customers. They supply a master copy from which other copies are made
and a diazo copy which we send to our customer. We keep the master copy
which we lend to other libraries or use to create further copies when
necessary. Because we still have the original we don't mind if the master
copy gets lost.
I have seen nothing which explains why BL cannot lend out the master copy
of the theses which they have. Why is it insisting that the only way it
can make these theses available is by continuing in the same old way as
before? I think the BL needs to re-consider and fast judging by the very
real anger that I and other ILL librarians feel at the way in which one not
very good system has been replaced with something even worse, even though
there is potential in time for it to be better. We are now in the position
of exposing our unique copies to risk because of this and having to explain
to our users that we are only able to offer a worse service with no idea
when it will be better.
Please pass this comment on if you wish, as I am sure that you are having
to cope with what other people have decided. I have every sympathy with
you as you try to cope with what is very demanding.
Jean
--On 15 October 2008 17:35 +0100 "Troman, Anthony" <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> Dear Jean
>
> Thanks for this. I hope that my response to the other query has answered
> most of your question. If not, please come back.
>
> With regard running parallel services (lending microform and digitising
> from paper), we simply can't afford to run 2 services. As I said in the
> other email (and tried - unsuccessfully - to explain below) 'loan' of a
> thesis doesn't just mean picking it up and sending it out - we have to
> copy each and every one. That involves film reproduction, chemical
> processing, posting out and tracking the loan. Believe it or not, we
> throw away the copy when it is returned. This is because theses are
> rarely asked for twice!
>
> Usage of the microform service is in serious decline and we are at a
> point where it is no longer viable
>
> I am not at my desk for much of the time at the moment as I am working
> with technical staff on getting EThOS working, but I will endeavour to
> answer questions if I can and will post updates to the list.
>
> I most sincerely apologise that we were not live yesterday - we are
> working extremely hard to get the system working.
>
> Anthony
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: UK discussion list for electronic theses and dissertations
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of JI Bradford,
> Information Management
> Sent: 15 October 2008 13:23
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: EThOS status 13:00 15/10 (and the microform service)
>
> Dear Anthony
>
> I think the question which ILL Librarians want answered is why the
> British Library cannot continue to lend the microforms already in its
> stock, while we wait for EThOS to build up its coverage. We understand
> perfectly why BL cannot continue to add to the microforms and is
> introducing EThOS. In fact from the e-mails I have seen, we welcome
> EThOS as making theses available much more widely and easily than
> before.
>
> No-one from the BL has provided an answer that I have seen to the
> question why microforms of theses already in place at Boston Spa cannot
> be lent as before if the thesis is not yet contained in EThOS. Unless
> BL continue to make microforms available which they already possess, we
> are being denied access to many theses including I believe those from
> Cambridge University.
>
> If you can give me an answer to this question, I'd be very grateful and
> so would a lot of other ILL librarians
>
> Jean
>
> --On 15 October 2008 13:11 +0100 "Troman, Anthony"
> <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
>>
>> Dear Colleagues
>>
>> PLEASE FORWARD THIS EMAIL TO YOUR ILL LIBRARIAN IF THEY DON'T ALREADY
>> RECEIVE IT
>>
>> We are now narrowing down the causes of our performance issues with
>> EThOS. Once identified we can work out how to fix it.
>>
>> In the meantime, please reassure your researchers/users/customers that
>
>> the service is coming shortly and to keep checking the ethos.ac.uk
>> website and the service itself.
>>
>> I realise you are in the front line and must have to field difficult
>> questions and I apologise once again for the delay.
>>
>> A number of people have asked why we can't reinstate the microform
>> service or run it in parallel. In short, it is losing huge sums of
>> money and cannot be sustained. It has only lasted this long because we
>
>> knew EThOS is coming along. Otherwise, some very difficult questions
>> about the service would have had to be addressed. Reading below, I
>> hope you can understand why the microform service cannot be continued.
>>
>> Here are some facts:
>>
>>
>> The British Library thesis microform service:
>> * is over 30 years old
>> * has never been updated
>> * supplies on out of date formats (microform) which can be read by
>> fewer and fewer people leading to more and more returns & refunds
>> * copies a thesis every time it is supplied (including when loaned)
>> * is slow -- supply times of up to 6 weeks
>> * does not support Open Access
>> * is manually intensive and therefore expensive
>> * is run on a commercial basis (the researcher pays)
>> * is unsustainable and is losing increasingly large sums of money
>> each year
>>
>>
>>
>> The current British Library microform service does NOT offer a
>> positive view of UK Higher Education to researchers in the UK and
>> around the world.
>>
>>
>>
>> EThOS:
>> * does NOT replace the current microform system -- the microform
>> system is unsustainable
>> * does NOT digitise from microform due to the poor quality achieved
>> (black & white, edited, 2nd generation copy, etc.)
>> * supports immediate online desktop delivery to researchers the
>> world over
>> * meets the expectations of the modern day information seeker
>> * generates e-content by digitising paper theses currently held on
>> library shelves around the country
>> * adds e-content to institutional repositories by returning
>> digitised theses to the originating institution
>> * only creates a copy once -- downloads and hard copy are generated
>> from the digitally stored copy
>> * preserves theses from participating institutions in perpetuity
>> * supports the Open Access aspirations of UK HE
>> * is operated on a cost-recovery basis by The British Library
>
>
>
> ----------------------
> 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 331 8367 Fax: 0117 925 5334
> [log in to unmask]
>
> VAT No. GB 139085946
----------------------
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 331 8367 Fax: 0117 925 5334
[log in to unmask]
VAT No. GB 139085946
|