Managing Electronic Reserves

Citation

Akeroyd, J. (2003), "Managing Electronic Reserves", Program: electronic library and information systems, Vol. 37 No. 3, pp. 209-209. https://doi.org/10.1108/00330330310484413

In a book so rooted in US library practice, any review needs to begin by addressing the terminological differences between there and the UK, though noting an increasing convergence in the language largely the consequence of the global domination of US library management systems. In the first paragraph of the first chapter the editor rightly quotes Kupersmith in defining “course reserves” as collections of materials (books, photocopies, articles and notes) being specified by teaching staff as essential requirements on a course and generally held either as short loan, closed or controlled access (to maximise availability and limit shelf life). The UK terminology is more commonly “short loan”, but “key text”, “reserve collection”, “offprint collections” are also common. This book is about offering those collections in electronic format, through digitisation programmes and delivery via a suitable database system. There are thus parallels or even overlaps with electronic delivery generally and with course materials and learning environments where the difference is fundamentally only one of ownership (in that the same processes of selection, digitisation, copyright clearance and delivery still apply).

Managing Electronic Reserves is a practical text written by practitioners and describes the activity from all conceivable angles; it is a collection of short articles on topics such as staff issues, evaluation, copyright, technology and so on. Some are authoritative and comprehensive; some are compact and some lightweight. One, on the ONCORES project at Humboldt University in Germany seems to occupy half the book, containing several appendices of rather superfluous handouts and procedures.

The problem, it seems to me, is that there is really not enough in the topic to warrant a textbook and yet some of what might and ought to be said is not there. First, there is very little about digitisation itself either from a technical point of view or how you go about it, despite it arguably being a fundamental precept of e‐short loan. Second, the systems perspective seems idiosyncratic; the systems detailed are either home grown or peculiar to the USA. A review of course reserve modules of the LMS (Library Management System) would have been of value. And third there is little of the economics other than a broad debate on the cost benefits of moving to electronic delivery.

If there is one chapter which stands out as of value and authority it is that on copyright by Gasaway. She covers the issue from both an historical perspective and provides a balanced account of the concerns of rights holders against the libraries who wish to maximise access. But there is one problem, and it is a problem with the whole book, and that is that it takes a very US‐centric perspective.

The chapter is written around the US Copyright Act of 1976 and the subsequent debate, and culminates in the current position – a mixture of joint guidelines and licensing arrangements. But it says nothing of European practice or the recent case brought by UK universities and the Copyright Licensing Agency. It would also have benefited from the UK eLib experience looking at projects such as ACORN, PHOENIX, and HERON where services reflect those of the US Copyright clearing houses.

I did learn something from the book – that short loan collections began around the 1930s, that e‐services might improve access for students but are unlikely to be more economic in so doing, and that the boundary between e‐short loan, course support material in VLEs (virtual learning environments) and library management systems is fast disappearing. More about institutional repositories and learning resource banks would have been welcome.

At the high price it is a rather slim, rather shallow and at times parochial textbook which I could not recommend buying.