ELECTRONIC RESERVES

by James H. Sweetland, North American Convenor

"Reserves" in U. S. academic library parlance, refers to a short-loan collection comprised of required and recommended material related to a class. This consists primarily of material owned by the library (with additions of copies of some material, usually articles, and material typically owned by a faculty member). For over forty years, a high percentage of this material has been photocopies of journal articles, rather than actual copies of monographs, serials, or electronic or audiovisual material.

Over about the last twenty years, it has been observed that most students do not actually read the material in the library; rather they photocopy from the copies, and then take it home, presumably to read at their convenience. In fact, during the 1970s, it appeared that traditional reserve systems were declining, as faculty began working with commercial copy shops to produce "course packets" of copies of articles, book chapters, and the like, which the students would then buy. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), this trend was stopped when the largest chain of copy shops lost a lawsuit over the creation of such course packs, brought over the issue of "fair use" by a textbook publisher. (cite Kinko's vs. Basic Books). Although the suit did not prevent the creation of course packs, it did require clear copying permission (and usually the payment of royalties) from the publisher. The copy shop, Kinko's, rapidly left the course business, and soon emerged as "your home office", providing fax, copy, and printing services for smaller businesses. And, although the court decision appeared to permit non-profit agencies such as college bookstores to create course packs, they too found that obtaining formal permission for each item copied from each publisher was safe, but cumbersome. Thus, reserve collections began growing again.

The current hot topic is the development of electronic reserves. Often using Adobe Acrobat or other similar page-image formats, the library scans in the material to be put on reserve. Students then either log in via the Internet, or come to the library, and access the material there.

For the most part, discussion to date has been centered on the issues of copyright. Several libraries have found that many publishers are reluctant to permit off-campus access to electronic versions of their material; others have found either that the copying fee is set too high for the library's pocket, or that the publisher frankly refuses to permit the copying, period. While this is certainly an issue of great concern, a number of other issues are overdue for consideration:

Given the practicality as well as the copyright issues, it is unlikely that entire books or even significant parts of books will be put into e-reserves.

Based on current practice, at best one can assume only about 80% of requested items will be permitted to e-reserve by the publishers.

Based on a number of studies, it is clear that the majority of students in at least the last couple of decades no longer use the "reserve room" to read the material, but rather photocopy it and take it home.

From my own observation and discussions with local librarians and faculty, many "distance education" students object strenuously to having to come to campus to read the material not on e-reserve, once a set of class readings is put in this format.

At least some libraries are heavily subsidizing e-reserve by such practices as absorbing all royalty charges (but only for electronic, not for paper copies), or even allowing students free access at no charge to laser printers, while still charging for use of photocopies from the paper.

Current technology means that nearly every page of scanned material has errors. These can vary from sudden changes in typeface or size, to total garbling of lines of text, to complete obscuring of graphics, and often of sidebars and other text on colored paper.

So, what will the future be?

There will probably be continuing and increasing pressure from students to (1) reduce the total amount of reserve reading and (2) to assign only material which can be put on electronic reserve, eliminating most books and a large assortment of journal articles. This might return teaching to the "book of readings" plus textbook approach of the 1950's, and reduce the flexibility of the teachers. This may also mean even fewer students will see a visit to the actual library as a desirable thing, but rather as an unfortunate necessity.

There will be pressure on libraries to provide clean copies, which seems to imply for the time being that more staff time per item will be devoted to e-reserve than to traditional photocopy and ultimately, upgrading of software and equipment. Libraries that currently provide wholly free printing facilities will find severe opposition to charging. This will cost the libraries more money

Students will be under pressure to upgrade computers to fast connections, high quality graphics and printers, preferably color printers. In effect, this means part of the capital cost of reserve collections shifts from the library to the student.

• What do you think?
• Is the above an accurate prediction?
• Why or why not?
• Do you think e-reserve is, in general, good, bad, or indifferent?

Back to Electronic Resources Viewpoints