HERON
Higher Education Resources ON-demand


The HERON project to develop an electronic resource bank of
copyright-cleared material to support teaching and learning in higher
education has received confirmation of £462 000 of funding.  This
initiative is within the Electronic Libraries Programme (eLib), funded
by the Joint Information Systems Committee of the Higher Education
Funding Councils, and administered by its Committee on Electronic
Information. 

The project will begin in August 1998 and use the combined technical,
marketing and project management skills of the University of Stirling,
Napier University, South Bank University, Blackwell's Information
Services and Blackwell Retail Ltd.  

HERON will work with the Copyright Licensing Agency and others to ensure
that rapid and effective copyright-clearance mechanisms are in place and
that rightsholders receive a fair return.

HERON will invite Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to become
subscribing members.  They will then be able to request material
relevant to their courses from the HERON resource bank and obtain
copyright clearance.  They will also be able to request digitisation of
new material.  Member HEIs will also be able to deposit electronic
materials belonging to them for wider use, and they will receive
royalties in return.  All HEIs will be entitled to use materials in the
resource bank, on payment of relevant usage charges. 

Distribution of materials will be by a variety of means.  Some
institutions will provide local electronic storage for the material of
interest to them, arranging for students to print what they require or
making arrangements centrally, for example through a bookshop, for
printing and sale.  Others will prefer a bookshop to handle the whole
distribution process.  An important feature, whatever the distribution
mechanism, will be control, so that rights-owners can be properly
recompensed.

Blackwell Retail Ltd and Blackwell's Information Services will be
primarily responsible for publisher liaison and marketing to the end
users as well as undertaking much of the system development.  The roles
of the HEI partners will include building the resource bank of digital
files and ensuring that the needs of Higher Education are understood by
rightsholders. 

Toby Blackwell, Chair of the Blackwell Group stated: "I am proud that
Blackwell's are involved in this project to enhance teaching and
learning through the use of electronic storage and transmission while
providing fair return for rights-holders.  This represents the core of
Blackwell's business - academic market expertise combined with software
innovation and partnerships with our suppliers." 

Peter Kemp, Director of Information Services at the University of
Stirling commented "Our priorities will be to maintain the momentum of
the current eLib projects, to achieve a breakthrough in the remaining
copyright clearance blockages, to represent the needs of HE to
rights-holders, and to encourage the expansion of on-demand printing and
electronic reserves throughout universities in the UK.  We look forward
to the challenge."

CONTACT: Carolyn Rowlinson, Associate Librarian,
         Information Services, University of Stirling, STIRLING FK9 4LA
         tel: 01786-467228     email: [log in to unmask]

May 1998







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