Derby doesn't do it by the book

Gordon Brewer says electronic libraries can help students on and off campus.

University libraries are not what they used to be. Among the bookstacks, banks of PCs are a big attraction. For service managers, terminals mean that maintaining a stable network is as important as maintaining books. For tutors, they mean more training on what is available and a greater possibility of misuse and plagiarism.

The range of material students can access remotely is growing. The (justified) hype about the exciting opportunities new technology offers sometimes suggests (wrongly) that we have reached the point where the "electronic library" can support all students' learning needs.

Most of the excitement has centred on the expanding universe accessible via the internet. But sophisticated navigation and evaluative skills are needed. Without these, an electronic library is more of an information source than a learning, teaching or research resource.

With these reservations, the University of Derby has developed an electronic library based on digital delivery of essential and recommended readings for students. It acts like a study pack, and students are given networked access, with print-outs on demand rather than books on "short loan" or "reserve".

Digitised documents are cross-referenced to the originals and to related material in the library's collections via the online catalogue. Copyright clearance is obtained and fees paid as necessary. Costs vary, but if this approach becomes more widespread, it is hoped prices will fall.

Since it started three years ago, the project has become an established component of the library service, with more than 400 articles and book chapters, covering some 30 modules, in the system or being processed, as well as sets of past examination papers and self-help packages. Work on authentication procedures will shortly enable students and lecturers to gain access from off-campus.

Derby's electronic library is not unique - eLib projects such as Acorn (Loughborough University) and Builder (Birmingham University) and Heron (Stirling University) are also centred on creating a database of digitised copyright-cleared learning resources. However, it is believed that the University of Derby's Electronic Library (Udel) is now one of the largest operational collections of its kind in the United Kingdom.

There are many models of electronic library service, and the differences raise important philosophical issues about breadth versus depth in students' use of learning resources. For example, there is a tension between the Udel strategy of giving access to "essential" materials and the potential that the internet offers students to explore more widely.

There is also a tension between defining the curriculum in terms of the knowledge, understanding and skills students need for their discipline, and helping them to gain the confidence, awareness, breadth of understanding and self-direction associated with graduate status. When there is little face-to-face tutorial contact, the differences are important.

The Quality Assurance Agency's guidelines on distance learning call for institutions to consider how far students taught at a distance can be expected to develop as autonomous learners and put mechanisms in place to help them. Electronically delivered course content and support materials have to be up to standard.

By itself, Udel's approach is insufficient. It needs to be complemented by access to a much wider range of web-based and other information resources. It is gradually becoming easier as Joint Information Systems Committee initiatives, such as the resource discovery network and the distributed national electronic resource, apply simpler navigational strategies and quality-control standards to the internet.

Developing graduate qualities in undergraduates so that they can locate, select and use a wide range of sources is a big commitment. Many well-tried alternative approaches are available, from induction programmes and specially constructed modules in the subject to help desks, drop-in workshops and peer support via mentoring.

There is nothing particularly new in this except that the increasing use of electronic delivery has multiplied the demand (especially for information technology skills) and that when courses are run off campus, support mechanisms, preferably online, are needed.

In Derby some aspects of learning skills support can already be delivered via the electronic library while others (such as an email-based inquiry and advice service) are still at development stage.

The electronic library is still concerned with providing the same three strands of support for students and academics that university libraries have always offered. These are:

* Unlimited access to information - principally for research, but also, with appropriate guidance, to supplement teaching

* Convenient and timely access to tutor-selected essential learning materials for all taught-course students

* Supporting access to information and learning materials by giving help in their use and enhancement of individual learning skills.

The visible changes are significant, but essentially a matter of logistics. The radical change lies in the potential of the electronic library to provide remote access to all three strands, thus contributing to an integrated model of distributed learning. This will define its role in the lifelong learning agenda and the new e-university and facilitate the next phase of expansion in post-16 education.

Gordon Brewer is head of library and learning resources at the University of Derby.