Hi All,
Senate House Library is participating in the Ethos scheme. We will however continue to loan hard copies of University of London theses directly to other UK/Ireland libraries, provided we have not already made a a digital copy available via Ethos.
Best wishes,
Gerry
Gerry Coyle
Document Supply Services Supervisor
User Services, Senate House Library
University of London Research Library Services
Malet St, London WC1E 7HU
Tel: +44(0)20 7862 8447
Fax: +44(0)20 7862 8480
[log in to unmask]
www.shl.lon.ac.uk
-----Original Message-----
From: For interlibrary-loan and document supply services. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of A.M. Zammer
Sent: 07 October 2008 12:34
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: EThOS the new Thesis supply service
Dear all
Below is a list of questions I put to Anthony Troman (Ethos Project
Manager) a few weeks ago together with his replies.He was very helpful and
answered all my questions very fully.
I would especially be interested in finding out if any of you will want to
absorb any costs if their readers need to pay to view as mentioned in my
final email to Anthony (at end of this email). By the way, the fact that
Cambridge hasn't yet decided to allow Ethos to digitise our copies has
nothing to do with us here in ILL and is still being discussed (as far as I
know) by our digitisation people along with our University's legal team. I
have emailed our University Copyright Officer and Solicitor to find out
what is happening re. Cambridge but have so far not received a reply.
Best wishes
Alison Zammer
Inter-Library Loans
Cambridge University Library
West Road
Cambridge
CB3 9DR
Tel: ++44 1223 333039
These are the emailed questions to Anthony with his replies
1.Will Cambridge students still have access to other University theses that
have been digitised and how will they gain access? Will Cambridge pay you a
subscription for viewing full theses on Ethos?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Any and all researchers wherever and whoever they are can access the system
and the theses available from it. There is no link between signing up to
supply your theses and using the system to access theses. There is no
subscription to access theses. The supplying institution decides whether
they will pay for digitisation or whether the researcher must - we expect
most institutions to pay for digitisation. Any thesis already on the system
is available for free download.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. If our readers need access to a thesis via Ethos which isn't yet
digitised, how long will they have to wait?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We hope around 2 weeks. However, it depends on how long it takes the
originating institution to retrieve the thesis and send it to us. For most,
we expect them to send the thesis overnight but some are checking with the
authors and therefore it will take longer than that.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.Is there a charge to our readers for downloading or only for printing/
burning on to CD etc. What will the charges be and how will they pay?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Charges to your readers will be:
1) for digitisation of the thesis if the institution doesn't want to pay -
first researcher requesting the thesis only, thereafter free (£41.50) 2)
for the BL to put it onto hard copy (£15 for a CD/DVD, £20 loose leaf, £25
soft-bound, £30 hard-bound) They can only pay by credit card (but please
remember that download will always be free)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Will we in the ILL Dept be able to access and print theses on behalf of
our readers if we can give their full details each time or will readers
definitely have to register individually and do it themselves? (Just
wondering if we can absorb some of the costs from our ILL budget)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The reader must download the thesis as they must agree to the terms and
conditions i.e. to protect the author's rights. However, as long as the
credit card is valid, anyone could pay for the thesis i.e. you could have
your reader login, select the thesis and agree to the terms and conditions
while you put in the library's corporate credit card details.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.Please confirm that once Ethos is up and running that we will no longer
be able to obtain microform copies of the theses already held by yourselves
and that they will be put into storage and will not longer be able to be
consulted? What is going to happen to these copies in the long term. Will
you give/sell them back to the awarding Universities?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Once EThOS is live (end September) microfilm will no longer be supplied by
the British Library. The current service in all its forms will cease and
only EThOS will be offered. The British Library can not afford to continue
running this heavy loss making and decreasingly used system, EThOS is much
more in tune with user expectations. Microfilm will be stored and
eventually disposed of. At the time of disposal it is possible that we may
give or sell them to universities but this will not be for some time.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.Will individuals still be able to purchase theses which are already held
on film/fiche or will they have wait for digitisation? (what about the ones
that you hold on film where the University is not involved in digitisation
such as Cambridge)?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Researchers will only be able to get theses via the BL from institutions
which participate in EThOS. They will have to therefore wait for
digitisation. Once digitised, the thesis will be available for free
download for the lifetime of the service. In the vast majority of cases the
thesis will be supplied for download for free. We can no longer offer
theses on microfilm - the processing is too expensive - and we can only
offer theses from institutions which participate in the EThOS service. We
would very much like Cambridge to be one of those institutions.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.Please confirm that you will list the participating Universities on the
Ethos webpage so that we know whether or not to approach Universities
direct for their hardcopy theses.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This was a very good idea of yours and we will endeavour to do this. If we
can't get this done for the live date we will implement shortly after.
However, you will be able to search the system without registering or
logging in, so it will be easy to find if a thesis is available via the
service. If there is no record on the system for the item, approach the
university direct.
Dear Anthony
Many thanks for your replies to my earlier questions. They definitely made
things clearer. I have now met with my manager (who knew nothing of this
project) and she is very keen for us in ILL to absorb the costs if any of
our readers have to pay to view as quoted in your reply below.
1) for digitisation of the thesis if the institution doesn't want to pay - first researcher requesting the thesis only, thereafter free (£41.50)
I don't know how often this will happen as you seem to think that the
awarding Institutions will pay for having their theses digitised, but if
they refuse and the FIRST researcher needs to pay then that is when we in
ILL want to step in.
Do you think that it is likely that the awarding Universities will decline
to pay? Have any of them said so yet?
We do not have a corporate credit card available to us. So we would have to
see if there was any way that we could pay by invoice, we would obviously
need to supply you with our readers details.Is there a way around this?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The following information is slightly out of date as we have now had a
number more responses, but a week ago only 4 of 49 institutions who had
responded at that time indicated that the first researcher digitising would
have to pay. From memory, since then we may have had 1 more institution
asking for payment from the researcher in a total of 66 responses.
We have no reason to assume that this ratio will increase.
Of course, each thesis only has to be paid for once, so a ratio of 1 in 10
institutions does not mean a ratio of 1 in 10 theses, and the number of
times a researcher is asked for payment will decrease over time as more
theses are digitised.
Unfortunately there is no other payment option than credit/debit card.
Could you take out a corporate card for this specific purpose? Or could you
reimburse the researcher?
Might it be worth firing a question out to one of the various lists to ask
how others are dealing with this - someone somewhere may have come up with
an acceptable solution.
On Oct 7 2008, JI Bradford, Information Management wrote:
>Dear Andy and fellow ILLers
>
> I think the plan is that people will see a thesis in Ethos and if they
> want a copy read offline they will be able to download a copy or order a
> paper copy using a credit card. I have looked at the Ethos web page at
> <http://www.ethos.ac.uk/> but I can find no information about this. This
> is what they say:
>
>"This system will enable students, researchers, and in fact anyone else
>with an interest in post graduate research theses material, to search the
>EThOS and to access, from the desktop, the full text, in secure format, of
>electronically stored theses, following selection. "
>
>Given the prices that BL currently charge it would be good to know more
>about the details of what they will charge for other types of copies.
>
>and in the news section it says this:
>
>"Any researcher from your institution who wishes to read a thesis from
>another UK HEI may use the system and download one of these 12,000 full
>text theses, or make a request for a thesis that is not yet digitised.
>Please ensure that your library's document supply/inter-library loan and
>acquisitions staff are aware of this. "
>
> There does not seem to be much to be aware of and Andy I think is
> right.
> I think that BL have talked to senior managers at our institutions who
> have not understood fully the impact of what is proposed. The number of
> theses made available in this way is small in comparison with the number
> held in all our university libraries and on microform at BL. I agree with
> Annette that BL should not withdraw a service, before the replacement is
> able to provide a similar coverage.
>
>Jean
>
>
>--On 07 October 2008 10:14 +0100 [log in to unmask] wrote:
>
>> This is all very interesting. It might be nice to hear what BL reps
>> have to say about these suggestions.....are some of them not members
>> of this email list?
>>
>> After all, there is demand for the traditional thesis service and
>> money to be made, in an apparently declining market, out of
>> fulfilling this demand.
>>
>> I'm sure E thesis are the future but if not offered in tandem with
>> hard copy (filmed or bound) then in the grand scheme of things people
>> are losing out.
>>
>> It feels like ILL staff are taking a great leap into the unknown at
>> the moment (and it's great that we are talking about it) but one
>> wonders whether ILL staff have had enough input into the process to
>> decide what researchers really want and how they want it. Lord knows
>> we spend enough of our time assisting them.
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> Andy
>> LSE
>> [log in to unmask]
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: For interlibrary-loan and document supply services.
>> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Annette Moore Sent: 07
>> October 2008 09:56
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Re: EThOS the new Thesis supply service
>>
>> Hi Alison and LIS-ILL community
>> Thank you for all your replies. I the picture that I think is
>> emerging is that, at least initially, there is likely to be a gap in
>> the availability of UK doctoral theses - depending on when / if
>> libraries sign up to EThOS and how librarians perceive the copyright
>> implications of digitising any theses on demand.
>>
>> The issue that immediately comes to mind, is why couldn't there have
>> been an overlap in supplying the BL's microfilmed theses (the ones
>> they already have in stock) on interlibrary loan at least for
>> another year, until the open access digitised theses are freely
>> available. I'm sure this wouldn't impact on the interest in EThOS as
>> I am sure it will develop into an excellent resource, but
>> maintaining access to the BL's microfilmed collection for an overlap
>> period would ensure researchers could still access the material they
>> need.
>>
>>
>> Annette
>>
>> --On 06 October 2008 14:02 +0100 "A.M. Zammer" <[log in to unmask]>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Dear Annette and LIS
>>>
>>> As yet Cambridge hasn't agreed to have their theses digitised via
>>> EThOS and we do not lend out our hardcopy theses. When EThOS is
>>> launched, BL will no longer supply microfilm copies of theses which
>>> they already have in stock - these will go into cold storage.
>>> Therefore it will not be possible to request Cambridge theses via
>>> ILL.
>>>
>>> Personal applications for the purchase of copies of dissertations
>>> for private research can be directed to Imaging Services in the
>>> University Library. The photocopying of Cambridge dissertations is
>>> subject to regulations made by the Board of Graduate Studies. A
>>> reader must first obtain the author's written permission unless, as
>>> with almost all dissertations approved since 1969, a signed
>>> declaration by the author allowing photocopies to be made is
>>> attached to the dissertation.
>>>
>>> I would be interested in hearing what other Libraries are doing and
>>> whether or not they plan to absorb any costs if their reader needs to
>>> pay to view.
>>>
>>> NB: Although,the turn-around is supposed to be quick, I know that
>>> some Universities will not allow their copies to be digitised
>>> without permission from the author so this could take some time.
>>>
>>> Best wishes
>>>
>>> Alison Zammer
>>> Inter-Library Loans
>>> Cambridge University Library
>>> West Road
>>> Cambridge
>>> CB3 9DR
>>> Tel: ++44 1223 333039
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Oct 3 2008, Annette Moore wrote:
>>>
>>>> I was just looking back at previous posts regarding new EThOS
>>>> service - due to go live 14th October (I believe)
>>>> <http://www.ethos.ac.uk/> - and couldn't find any responses to the
>>>> post below regarding what participation level other Universities
>>>> are signing up to.
>>>>
>>>> At Sussex, we have signed up to Associate level 1 where we are
>>>> contracted to supply paper theses selected on-demand by
>>>> researchers using the system and the cost model essentially,
>>>> pay-as-you-go. It would be useful to get an idea of the level of
>>>> participation in EThOS as users are still likely to come through
>>>> ILL services if they cannot find the thesis they need on EThOS.
>>>>
>>>> I know turn-around-times for digitisation are expected to be fast,
>>>> but it would still be useful to know whether any Libraries will
>>>> allow interlibrary loan of their hard copy theses if it is not yet
>>>> digitised or not available through EThos.
>>>>
>>>> I am happy to summarise responses to the list,
>>>>
>>>> thanks
>>>> Annette
>>>>
>>>> Annette Moore
>>>> Library Resources Supervisor
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --On 05 August 2008 12:07 +0100 Jane Bramley
>>>> <[log in to unmask]>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Dear All,
>>>>> I wonder if you could help me. Here at Loughborough we are
>>>>> still looking into the EThOS service which as I
>>>>> understand
>>>>> it is going to replace the existing British Library thesis service. I
>>>>> believe that as a Library we need to sign up to the EThOS service and
>>>>> we have a choice of 4 different participation options. The options
>>>>> are;
>>>>>
>>>>> We can pay a figure of between £8,000 to £2,000 up front (amount
>>>>> is based on JISC banding) We can pay retrospectively for our
>>>>> theses to be digitised, so we pay £35 for every request we receive
>>>>> for one of our theses We can refuse to pay and the first person to
>>>>> request the thesis has to pay the £35 digitisation cost We can
>>>>> provide a link to the thesis that we already hold electronically
>>>>> in a institutional repositary
>>>>>
>>>>> Can I ask if other University Libraries have signed up to EThOS
>>>>> yet
>>>>> and what participation model you have opted for.
>>>>>
>>>>> Thank you for any information you can provide.
>>>>>
>>>>> Regards
>>>>> Jane
>>>>>
>>>>> Jane Bramley
>>>>> Inter Library Loans
>>>>> Loughborough University Library
>>>>> Tel
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Annette Moore
>>>> Library Resources Supervisor
>>>> University of Sussex Library
>>>> University of Sussex
>>>> Brighton
>>>> BN1 9QL
>>>>
>>>> Tel: 01273 877046
>>>> Email: [log in to unmask]
>>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>
>>
>>
>> Annette Moore
>> Library Resources Supervisor
>> University of Sussex Library
>> University of Sussex
>> Brighton
>> BN1 9QL
>>
>> Tel: 01273 877046
>> Email: [log in to unmask]
>>
>> Please access the attached hyperlink for an important electronic
>> communications disclaimer:
>> http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/secretariat/legal/disclaimer.htm
>
>
>
>----------------------
>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
>
--
Alison Zammer
Inter-Library Loans
Cambridge University Library
West Road
Cambridge
CB3 9DR
Tel: ++44 1223 333039
|
