Learning and Teaching Committee

Curriculum Sub-Committee

Subject: Access to Library Facilities

Origin: Librarian (email: 15 May 2006)

Jennie -

The issue is that access to the resources to which the Library subscribes is not within my gift, but within that of the producers of the resources, who set the terms under which access is licensed.

At the end of this email is reproduced the guidance given by lawyers to the Joint Information Systems Committee on who is authorised, under current licence agreements, to access electronic resources. It seems clear from this that the Library would have to contact all the individual publishers and obtain written permission for students in Malaysia to access any of the electronic resources licensed to Loughborough University. In addition to the staff costs incurred, such extended access would probably mean increased subscription fees - hence my comment on the proposal.

The procedure would be for the Business School to give the Library a list of the specific electronic information resources to which the students will require access. Library staff would then contact the individual publishers to establish permissions and costs.

There are also technical considerations. The students in Malaysia would only be able to access those resources for which Athens security is in place: they could not be given access to electronic resources licensed by IP address. Also their Athens usernames and passwords would have to be set up so that they only had access to those resources for which the Library had publisher permission - it would be necessary to ask Computing Services whether restricting access to specific resources is possible within Athens.

Advice from JISC lawyer follows.

..................................................................

"Under the model JISC licenses, an Authorised Institution is only allowed to
provide access to the resources negotiated by JISC to the following persons:

1. UK current students (undergraduates and postgraduates) of such Authorised
Institution, whether full time or part time;

2. UK members of staff (employed on a permanent or a temporary basis or a
contractor) of such Authorised Institution; and

3. UK members of the public (Walk-In Users) for the time that they are
within the UK physical premises of such Authorised Institution.

"An Authorised Institution" can only be a UK further or UK higher education
institution (for NESLi2 also some research councils are eligible).

"UK current students" and "UK member of staff" are students and members of
staff of any nationality who are enrolled/registered on a course of study
with, or employed or appointed by the Authorised Institution and not by an
affiliated or partner organisation of such Authorised Institution outside of
the UK. UK current students and UK members of staff can access the resource
within the physical premises of the Authorised Institution and remotely
(within the UK and abroad whilst studying abroad or on a sabbatical).

In the event that Authorised Institutions want to extend access to the
resource to affiliated or partner organisations (and students and staff of
such affiliated or partner organisations) abroad or even in the UK, they
should contact the relevant publisher and obtain their written permission to
do so. This extended access might incur an increase in the total fee for
the resource."

Regards,

Mary.

________________________________
Mary Morley
University Librarian and Director of Information Services & Systems
m.d.morley@lboro.ac.uk
telephone 2340

----- Original Message -----

From: "J.E.Elliott" <J.E.Elliott@lboro.ac.uk>

To: "M.D.Morley" <M.D.Morley@lboro.ac.uk>

Cc: "PVCT" <M.Bell@lboro.ac.uk>

Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2006 12:08 PM

Subject: Access to Library Facilities

> Mary,
>
> At the meeting of Curriculum Sub-Committee last week attention was drawn to
> your
> consultation form for the MSc Strategic Automotive Dealership Management
> (Malaysia) in which you said:
> ' I am afraid the School cannot assume that the students on this programme
> will automatically have rights of access from Malaysia to the electronic
> information resources to which the Library subscribes. It may be necessary
> to check the licence agreement for each database or journal required,
> incurring a significant additional cost to the Library.'
>
> The relevant part of the CSC minute reads:
> 'In regard to the Librarian's comments as part of the consultation
> on the programme that it could not be assumed that students on the programme
> would automatically have rights of access from Malaysia to the electronic
> information services to which the Library subscribed, it was commented that
> all LU registered students should have access to LU facilities and AGREED
> that the Librarian's comments be further investigated.'
>
> Please could you clarify the position.
>
> many thanks,
> Jennie

Author – Jennie Elliott

Date – October 2006