Dear colleagues,
 
Thank you to everyone who responded to my query about e-resources access
for 'interrupting' students. The responses are summarised below. It
seems to be a mixed picture really - some institutions allow access and
others don't....I've not managed to get a response from JISC yet. I
think this remains a grey area, and up to the discretion of individual
institutions. I've decided that for now, interrupting students will only
be entitled to access the e-resources via our walk-in user PC, until the
situation can be better defined.
 
Responses:
 
- Our interrupted students are still allowed to access e-resources, but
their Library borrowing is restricted to 5 items instead of the normal
10 (or 12 for final year students).
 
- If interrupted to catch up with course work, then to cut of the
e-resources would deny them the ability to catch up. If however
interrupted for non-academic reasons, then probably not an issue. The
bigger issue for us would be that if they are not paying fees they loose
their id card and IT user account, so Athens will be the least of their
problems!
 
- If a student has paid a fee and this fee is not being reimbursed isn't
there a contractual responsibility to supply the services they have paid
for until the end of the contract period? So if a student intermits with
the intention of returning next term/year and they have paid a fee for
this term/year isn't the University obliged to provide those services or
return a part of the fee paid?
 
- we treat these students as a type of visitor during the suspension of
their membership. We get the Head of their School to act as "sponsor" so
that we retain some formal contact with the student and we give them a
Library card with reduced borrowing privileges. We are an AthensDA site
but we provide this category of student with a Classic Athens Access
account with a limited IP Address range so their access is confined to
on-campus only and so they effectively become "walk-in" users.
 
- This comes up for us all the time as students take their degrees in
chunks, and often take a break. Our E resources manager says that the
licenses state that current means actively studying, and so we turn off
access to students during breaks. Our students could quite easily be
using the resources for other non academic uses. But many do get upset
that they can not 'get ready' for the next chunk ahead of time.
 
- I think we have a different interpretation of the situation of
interrupted student. If they "interrupt" in the middle of an academic
year we do nothing until their normal expiry date is reached. If they
then don't re-register the following Septemer/October,then their
entitlements to librfary borrowing, e resource access etc -are not
renewed - on the grounds that technically they are NOT a registered
student ( I think we do this partly because they are not reported to
HESA in our student numbers count, and JISC banding is based on student
fTEs....)
 
Thanks again for all your responses.
 
Regards,
 
Kate Newell
--------------------------------------------
E-Resources and Serials Team Leader
Academic Services - Collections & Research Support 
University of Exeter Library
Stocker Road
Exeter
Devon
EX4 4PT
 
Tel: 01392 269283 (internal x5283)
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
________________________________

From: Newell, Kate 
Sent: 30 April 2008 11:13
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Advice re: e-resources access for 'Interrupting' students


Dear colleagues,
 
I was wondering if I could ask you what your policy is on access to
library electronic resources for interrupting students, please?
 
Technically, if a student interrupts their course of study, they are
denied access to any University facilities (including library, IT etc)
during their interruption. So, in theory, they would not be entitled to
access library electronic resources. However, 'technically' they are
still 'registered' students of the University....the advice I've
received from Athens is that it all depends on licence agreements and
how they can be interpreted. 
 
I've asked JISC for their advice, but in the meantime, it would be
really useful to hear how other institutions deal with this issue - any
advice would be gratefully received! I will happily post a summary for
the list.
 
Many thanks,
 
Kate Newell
--------------------------------------------
E-Resources and Serials Team Leader
Academic Services - Collections & Research Support 
University of Exeter Library
Stocker Road
Exeter
Devon
EX4 4PT
 
Tel: 01392 269283 (internal x5283)
E-mail: [log in to unmask]