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COPYRIGHT & COURSE BOOKS

3. Methodology

The principal methodology used in the study was that of surveying organisations and personnel with interests and skills in the areas of concern. Three populations were identified for this survey: the publishers (copyright holders), the users (students) and intermediaries including university staff such as academics, academic librarians and `quality managers'. The latter were defined for the purposes of the study as `persons within Higher Education institutions charged with the responsibility of monitoring, assessing and improving where necessary the quality of course provision and associated learning support materials'. They may be staff involved in educational development, executive officers, senior academics, professional staff, or others. In any event, their role is relevant to that of the university librarian inasmuch as both are concerned with materials provided to students (including course booklets, study guides and lecture `handouts').

The student population is both large and diverse and was therefore considered to be `out of reach' of the resource constraints of this study. Therefore the intention was to address the intermediary populations to cull a view on the ultimate users. Academic staff are also a large and disparate group, and consequently the methodology focused on libraries and `quality managers'.

Thus the three target groups were publishers, librarians and `quality managers' (as a means of accessing information on the activities of specific departments, and on the impact of initiatives to improve quality in curriculum support materials). An advantage of excluding the larger sectors at this stage from the study was that more institutions (and therefore a more statistically sound cross-section) could be surveyed.

In addition to a literature search, the survey method was:

a) a postal questionnaire to UK university librarians

b) a postal questionnaire to `quality managers' or equivalent in universities whose librarians responded to questionnaire (a) to the effect that relevant information was not readily available from the librarian's (centralised) point of view

c) telephone interviews of a cross-section of `academic publishers' serving the Higher Education sector in the UK

d) in-depth interviews with a small number of publishers chosen as a result of the telephone interviews c) according to the following criteria:

i) diversity of response to telephone interview on main issues: the intention was to give more attitudinal/qualitative substance to the quantitative results of the telephone survey

ii) size of company

iii) willingness to be interviewed

iv) location of office

With the exception of d), the sample of the population used for survey was 100%. The survey was undertaken between March and July 1994.

Details of the questionnaire content and responses are contained in Appendices 1-4. (Not available in electronic form)

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