1. Talis Aspire Digitised Content at
Middlesex: The story so far
Kate Vasili
Copyright Officer
Talis Aspire Digitised Content Open Day
British Library, 17th March 2014

2. Background
• Pre CLA Scanning Licence - No Service
• Since CLA Scanning Licence - No Service
Devolved system i.e. Academics uploaded content
independently with advice and guidance only.
Academics:-
– Required to check copyright and licence compliance
– Required to attach CLA Copyright Notice to PDF
– Required to report scanning to Copyright Officer

3. Issues
• Apprehension and very few scans.
Of those that braved the copyright & licence maze.
• No confidence in compliance and copyright checking
– checking process either inconsistent or non-existent entirely.
• CLA Copyright Notice or permissions info. not always attached
• Reporting,
from - No scanning reported
to
- Not all scanning reported
or
- Absolutely any kind of upload reported
including excluded and unlicensed content.
Result = continuous auditing of VLE as much as possible.

4. Why did we continue?
• Academic freedom
• Finances
• Lack of understanding of risks
• Lack of complaints i.e.
“If it ain’t broke…………”

5. Why the change?
• NSS scores and student expectations
More efficient provision and delivery of
online resources required.
• Acknowledgement of litigation risk
Finally some real examples of Institutions
paying huge sums for copyright
infringement.
(Scare-mongering?.....…maybe a little)

6. Result = All change
• MyUnihub – Single sign-on Learning Space
• Talis Aspire Reading List
• LSS Digitisation Service
• Migration from Blackboard to Moodle
• Talis Aspire Digital Content
• Classic Athens to Athens LA
• CLA Licence
• Free student printing

7. Why TADC?
• CLA had promised a copyright checking tool for a
while
• Talis was one contender
• Attended Talis Aspire Open Day, November 2012
where TADC was showcased
• Impressed by the potential, storage solution and
NTU’s endorsement
• Equally cautious if it could handle the vagaries of
copyright law and the CLA licence.
• Decided to trial TADC from March 2013.

8. 1 month Trial ran March to June
• Testing it to the max
• All kinds of requests were raised by
Library staff and a few handpicked
academics
• Many referrals generated

9. First Impressions
– Initial access and authentication issues
• Access given to all existing Talis users
• Wrong version of Athens
– Concerns with items not being identified
• as existing (OCLC etc)
• on our catalogue (print and e-resources) despite source
being from Talis Aspire Bookmark
• CLA API
– Concerns with CLA licence compliance & reporting

10. Problems Reasons & solutions
Concerns with items not being identified
•as existing (OCLC, xISBN, CrossRef etc)
•on our catalogue (print and e-resources)
•In CLA API
•Request metadata inconsistent or
rogue ISBN’s
•Catalogue data missing - Link
Resolver issues
=Screen scrape of all CLA lists not
included in API – Title Search Tool
Concierge decision not always correct (mainly
licensing issues)
= Concierge override option for
a) Direct publisher permissions
b) Incorrect CLA decisions i.e.
Departmental copy used
Global edition covered
Print/Download available to all Moodle widget designed and
implemented
CLA Copyright Notice not completed correctly Details still missing or incorrect
CLA Report not completed correctly Override items not included
Multiple ISBNs per item
Since corrected
Item previously requested/uploaded, not picked
up from the vault or wrong item uploaded
Still being investigated

11. Since adopting TADC July 2013
528 Live - 41 Referred - 172 Rejected - 13 Withdrawn

12. Usage Stats over Year

13. Usage stats in the last month

14. Satisfaction?
• Academics
Impressed with:
– Speed of turnaround
– Quality of Scans
– Being kept informed where not automatic
– Not having to worry about copyright and licensing
– Students are actually reading items because of easier
accessibility
Concerns:
– Turnaround time of BL requests not fulfilled
– Turnaround time of rejected requests where direct permissions
sought
– Students have to create a profile to access their readings
– Not yet rolled out to all subjects and modules

15. Satisfaction?
• Students:
Impressed with:
– Essential readings instantly available online
– Readings accessible with University disability software
as standard
Concerns:
– Why they need to create a profile to access readings
– Why all reading material isn’t available online
– Why all my modules don’t provide this

16. Satisfaction
• Digitisation Team
Impressed with:
– automatic checking and processing of majority of
requests
– simplicity in using the product
– Professionalism and efficiency of TADC support team
Concerns:
– amount of referrals generated
– time it takes to investigate why referred
– time it takes to raise tickets and explain errors
– Vault operation needs attention

17. Overall Impression So Far
• Time saving on the whole with majority of
requests and generating reports (Debate as to
whether time saved is counter-balanced by
time taken resolving issues and overriding)
• Confidence that items going live are fully
compliant
• Potential to be much better with further
developments constantly being investigated
and added

18. Wish List for the Future
• Remove/resolve Student Profile requirement
• Better integration and consistency with Talis Aspire
terms
• Reduce referrals
– Better integration with external API’s and databases
identifying item or licensing e.g. xISBN, Crossref, OCLC, CLA
– Better integration with LMS and E-resources/databases
• More information/columns on ‘all request’ report
• BL Integration to redirect on failure to supply, to other
holding Libraries able to provide CFP copies e.g.
National Libraries of Wales, Scotland etc.

19. Thank you for listening
?