This Saengnamu article is currently under review by the editorial staff.

20,000 journals from British Library as PDF

Expanded digital service protects publisher copyright

William Pollard (will789)

The British Library now offers a paid PDF download service for articles from 20,000 international research journals. The service is intended for small and medium businesses and individual researchers who do not have access to a university library or an account with the British Library. Lynne Brindley, Chief Executive at the British Library said, “We exist for everyone who wants to do research and have been working hard to make our collection more accessible and relevant." A new online search engine only returns results from these journals so is more selective than Google or other web options. These records in this search engine go back five years and currently number around nine million ? with 150,000 new entries added each month.Almost 20% orf articles can be downloaded immediately as they are already available in digital form. Other articles have to be scanned each time but this usually only takes a few hours.

The web address to have a look at this is

This new service is a further development in supplying content as PDF. Secure Electronic Delivery was launched at Online Information 2002, covering any document available including books. At the end of 2004 the system coped with an averages of 10,000 files a day and had over 1000 regular clients with an account. Any stored document can be scanned and sent as a secure PDF within two hours.

Copyright is protected through the Digital Rights Management built into Acrobat. The copyright protection is an important aspect of the relationship with publishers, who charge a variable fee in addition to the standard charges.

The investment started in 2002 when photocopying machines were gradually replaced by scanners. The project was supported by Relais for scanning technology and Adobe with Content Server and Acrobat 6. Relais are based in Ottowa and have been supplying systems to libraries since 1996. Adobe are working on server software to support 'intelligent documents'. Digital Rights Management has been built into recent versions of the Adobe Reader for displaying PDF documents.

Although there is still a demand for hard copy, the current workflow is that any requested document is scanned to PDF. Then either the PDF is sent as part of the Secure Electronic Delivery service or hard copy is printed and mailed. The image quality is an improvement over the previous photocopies and there is a cost saving from using both sides of the paper. There is a higher charge for delivery in hours so most requests are for delivery within a couple of days.

As part of the model that gained support from publishers, each document is scanned whenever requested and the PDF destroyed once delivered. This may seem to be a cause for extra work but is part of the British Library's commitment to protecting copyright. There is no security risk that a PDF might reach an unautorised destination. When delivered the PDF can only be opened on the specified computer. Only two copies can be printed out.

The British Library is part of the Common Information Environment group looking at public access to UK information. They asked MORI to look at current opinions, based on focus groups and 2000 interviews in October and November 2004. Home is the place from which people most commonly access the Internet, with

80% of current users saying that they go online most often from there. 53% of all respondents go online at least once a week, including 30% who do so every day.

Other members of the Common Information Environment include the educational organisation Becta and the Museums Libraries & Archives Council. The group want to encourage more use of the digital resources that could be available over the web. A report from Engine is available on their website and suggests they consider a name that would be easier to understand, such as 'The Common Knowledge Project' or 'The Public Knowledge Project'. One current piece of research is to look at the Creative Commons licence for copyright and consider how it could be modified for this purpose.

The BBC have also announced plans for a Creative Archive. This will make archive material available with permission for re-use as part of a new creation. Also involved are the British Film Institute, the Open University and Channel 4. So far very little actual content is on the site but there is the full text of several speeches and seminars. Channel 4 has not got the rights to much of what they broadcast but they are prepared to find a late night spot for remixes once they exist. So far the impression is of an official attempt to find a way to relate to what is already happening on the web. There could be more material later and the idea of the archive is well worth watching.

Meanwhile the British Library at least has an effective method of distributing journal articles and ensuring that the copyright holders get paid. This is likely to remain an approach that appeals to many publishers and offers one option for creatives.

Similar story at Acrobat Services UK

http://www.acrobat-services.co.uk