I have had five positive responses to my enquiry to lis-ill regarding use of electronic signatures for copyright clearance.

These were from University of Gloucestershire, Royal Holloway College and King’s College London, all of whom use Aleph as we do, University of Newcastle, who use ILLOS, and University of Plymouth. In addition the University of Edinburgh is about to embark on a trial.

The method in all cases is the same: users have to log into the library system using a unique user name and password, and then check a tick box on the request to confirm they agree to abide by the legislation.

Additional information gleaned:

• some respondents expressed a wariness about being “open” about their use of electronic signatures, lest they should be made a test case by the CLA.
• It was pointed out that the system must store the  records of requests for at least seven years.