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COPYRIGHT & COURSE BOOKS

2. Background to the study

Over the past five years the number of people involved in higher education in the UK has expanded dramatically. Figures published by the Government Statistical Service [1] show that the number of students rose by 25% between 1985/86 and 1990/91 (from 937,000 to 1,176,000). Although this expansion is now set to slow (Government plans suggest it will be relatively static over the next three years), the trend later in the 90s is likely to be one of continuing growth to meet the levels of higher education participation enjoyed by major international competitors such as the USA, Germany and Japan. Such expansion is unlikely to be coupled with equivalent levels of Government investment; that is, the cost per student borne by the Government is likely to continue to decrease, pushing universities to address new ways of delivering education at lower unit cost. These trends are necessarily reflected in the library context and many UK academic libraries are faced with burgeoning student demands, but with decreased, or at best static, resources to cope with them. For example, over the past decade, although library book budgets have increased, they have not been able to keep pace with the price of books during this time. This is supported by LISU statistics [2]. The average price of UK academic books rose from £12.97 to £29.97 between 1980/81 and 1990/91, an increase of 131%, whilst in the same period the average university spending per capita on books rose by only 29%, and the average polytechnic/college spending by 24%. In terms of books that can be purchased, these figures demonstrate a fall in purchasing power from 2.07 to 1.05 books per person in universities and 1.45 to 0.63 books per person in the polytechnic/college sector. Periodical statistics are also incongruous. The average subscription price rose by 266% between 1980/81 and 1990/91; the average spending per capita on periodicals increased by only 109% in the university sector and 60% in the polytechnic/college sector. Increasing prices, particularly of journals, have meant that already limited resources are becoming very stretched.

Student requirements for textbook-type material have also grown substantially and not merely in proportion to the growth in student numbers. Many students now come into higher education from relatively deprived backgrounds or with limited personal resources, and with an expectation that the university ought to be able to meet their basic reading requirements. There is also a growing percentage of mature and second-chance students, some supporting families; in many cases they are faced with limited choices, namely: buying text books at high prices (much of which may be redundant in course terms), borrowing from the university library which will often imply limited periods of loan and a long wait for access, or short-term perusal in the library, followed by photocopying of relevant excerpts. The first option is at an unacceptably high cost and moreover many textbooks are outdated for the purposes of vocational courses. The second option is unacceptable for an intensively studied course which requires projects to be delivered to strict deadlines, and the latter option, though probably preferable to the other two choices, causes considerable cost to students and management problems for the library. It is also a concern to publishers in ensuring that they get a fair return on their investment.

One technique which is emerging as a way of overcoming these critical problems is that of on-demand publishing, also commonly referred to as on-demand print and publish, custom publishing and bespoke publishing. The concept of on-demand publishing is straightforward. It relies upon a manufacturing process which is able to produce one-off very limited copies of a publication as a direct response to a request from a potential reader. It necessarily relies on technology which is as economic in producing a single copy as multiple copies. On-demand publishing has emerged as a viable concept through the development of three inter-linking technologies which have recently come to fruition. These are the high-volume digital copiers (the Xerox DocuTech is probably the best example, but there are others), the advent of relatively cheap mass storage capable of storing substantial numbers of document images, and finally the development of relatively cheap, reliable image digitizers capable of faithfully reproducing an A4 document. These technologies together enable a publisher or others to digitize existing material, to store on disk for later retrieval and print off in high-quality bound format copies. Hence it becomes possible to publish and print documents as required in a relatively economic way.

A subset of on-demand publishing is custom publishing or bespoke publishing. This idea is also straightforward and relies on the possibility of republishing sections, chapters or combinations of text from different books so as to meet a specific local demand. The technique has been largely taken up by the academic world where professors or academics are asked to detail appropriate sections of text to create a new volume, which students can then retrieve and have copied on-demand through a central facility. In this way text can be adjusted to match course requirements, whilst students save on the cost of buying several complete monographs from which only portions or chapters are required. Thus a new book is formed which more accurately meets the requirements of the academic programme, and avoids redundancy.

The advantages of this approach are multiple:

print runs can be geared quite explicitly to the potential market, avoiding tying up resources in the stocking of redundant text, i.e. over-printing
lecturers' own material can be inserted at relevant points in the text to help guidance, understanding and self-assessment. The whole can become much more coherent, more tailored to specific course requirements
low print costs and low redundancy of information imply maximum value for the ultimate recipient
the `just-in-time' nature of the publishing process means that lecturers can keep abreast of topics that otherwise may change rapidly, i.e. new text can be created within weeks or days of the delivery of a course, taking into account new laws, new political or economic changes, etc.
the fact that the original text is in electronic form means that it can be routinely updated and amended or enhanced as the course develops or experience of use shows sections to be inadequate. It is not unreasonable to think that academics will routinely change and amend their support material each semester and a new block will be produced
importantly, the electronic nature of the process ensures that it is possible to meter accurately both quantity and extent of copies so that appropriate returns on copyright can be made.

The results of on-demand publishing have been variously labelled `custom books', `course readers', `study packs', `learning packs' etc. They also overlap significantly with the concepts inherent in the interactive learning material used in distance learning. The differential terminology illustrates the variety of possible approaches in the production process. Course readers are perhaps generally accepted as implying collections of existing copyright material bound together for the sake of convenience to provide a coherent set of readings as background support to a course.

Study and Learning Packs also imply the above, but with more interactivity by way of assessments, guidance and originally authored material, perhaps to `top and tail' the offprints. The whole can provide, in effect, a systematic and structured course. By contrast, the custom and bespoke publishing piloted by McGraw-Hill within the Primis project has largely implied supply reproducing a fraction of a book or books, as a means of economy, where the student really doesn't require the whole of the textbook.

2.1 The Copyright Licensing Agency and CLARCS

The CLA is the UK's Reproduction Rights Organisation. It was set up by authors and publishers (rightsholders) to license the photocopying of books, journals and periodicals and to distribute the fees collected to those rightsholders whose works have been photocopied. Copyright law gives authors and publishers the right to control photocopying of their work.

CLARCS is the CLA's Rapid Clearance Service. Institutions may obtain permission to compile study packs from books, journals and periodicals by telephoning or faxing CLARCS, who advise permission charges (set by the copyright holder) for the particular proposed use of the material [4].

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