A consortium of the universities of Stirling, Napier and South Bank, Blackwell's Bookshops and Blackwell's Information Services have won government funding to create a new learning/teaching information service. Project HERON (Higher Education Resources ON-demand) aims to develop a national database and resource bank of electronic texts which will widen access to course materials and improve the quality of learning throughout higher education in the UK.
The consortium will receive about £450,000 from the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the Higher Education Funding Councils. The development phase started in August 1998 and the objective is to make the service self-financing at the end of the three year project.
HERON will invite Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to become subscribing members. Members will then be able to request material relevant from the HERON resource bank for clearance and digitisation. Member HEIs will also be able to deposit materials belonging to them, such as lecture and course notes, for wider use within the HERON resource bank, and they will receive royalties on its use. All HEIs will be entitled to use materials in the resource bank, on payment of relevant usage charges.
As well as enabling academic staff to tailor recommended reading to specific courses, the service will also offer the diversifying student population convenient access to reading materials via paper course packs or online delivery. In addition it will allow librarians to shift scarce resources which are currently being allocated to in¯exible, traditional methods of text provision, widely recognised as being inadequate.
Julian Blackwell, Chairman of the Blackwell Group, commented “I am proud that Blackwells are involved in this project to enhance teaching and learning through the use of electronic storage and transmission whilst providing fair return for rights-holders. We will draw on some of our core strengths – academic market expertise combined with software innovation and strong partnerships with our suppliers.”
HERON will work with CLA (Copyright Licensing Agency) and others to ensure that rapid and effective copyright-clearance mechanisms are in place and that rights-holders receive a fair return. Blackwell's Bookshops and Blackwell's Information Services will be primarily responsible for publisher liaison and marketing to the end users as well as undertaking most of the system development. Stirling, Napier and South Bank Universities will primarily be responsible for building the resource bank of digital files.
Project HERON will carry forward the work of the Electronic Libraries Programme (eLib) which publishers and libraries have worked on over the last eight years e.g. SCOPE, PHOENIX and ACORN.
For further information please contact:
Marianne Jacques, Communications Manager, Blackwell's Information Services, Hythe Bridge Street, Oxford OX1 2ET, UK. Tel: (01865) 262560. Fax: (01865) 262503. E-mail: marianne.jacques@blackwell.co.uk URL: http://www.blackwell.co.uk