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‘Scientific Publications: Free for All?, Tenth Report of Sessions 2003-04,

Appendix 116.

Select Committee on Science and Technology Written Evidence

APPENDIX 116

Memorandum from Dr Brian Stuart McBeth

1. I am writing to the Select Committee to draw attention to the problems that

some university library readers have in accessing scientific and social science

journals without an Athens username. According to the Athens web-site the

system "provides users with single sign on to numerous web-based services

throughout the UK and overseas. Athens was initially deployed in the Higher

Education sector in 1996 and has firmly established itself as the de facto standard

for secure access management to web-based services for the UK education and

health sectors".

2. The position at every UK University library regarding all subscription-based

electronic resources, including electronic journals, is that the institutions are

bound by the restrictive licence terms negotiated and entered into by the

Department of Education with Athens. The terms are explicit in that access is

only authorized to current students and members of staff of the University. This

gives rise to an absurd situation where a person, who is not a member of the

university but who is authorized to use the library can not access a large part of

the collection because of the restrictive terms of the Athens licence.

3. This means that bona fide readers at the Bodleian Library, University of

Oxford, like me who are allowed into the library but are not current members of

the university, are denied access to the online journals. As a former member of

the University of Oxford with a doctorate degree, I have a reader's ticket to the

Bodleian Library, but I am unable to access the online part of the collection.

Apart from the rare manuscript collection, there is nothing in the "General Guide

to the Bodleian Library" that states that part of the Library's collection is out of

bounds to readers. Section 1.1 of the brochure states quite clearly that the

resources of the Library, and anybody would assume that to mean all the relevant

electronic journals and on-line resources, are available to the "the whole

community of the learned". I consider myself part of that community, with two

post-graduate degrees from Oxford, nine books published with reputable

publishers, a further book under consideration with a US university publisher,

and I am currently working on another book. (See attached list of publications,

papers and conferences) It therefore came as a shock to be debarred from using

the online material, especially in this electronic age. Ironically, access to the hard

copies of the journals is still allowed. It is quite baffling and hard to understand

that such a caste system operates within a university library, especially as there is

no warning in the various publications on the library that such a barmy policy

exists.

4. Such a policy seems incomprehensible to me, as it is clearly against

scholarship, discriminatory, and a form of censorship that should not occur in

publicly funded institutions, especially at one of the country's copyright libraries.

It also begs the question as to how such a restrictive contract was entered into in

the first place.

5. There is a great deal of sympathy on this matter from Sir Colin Lucas, the

Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, who states in a letter to me on

September 22, 2003, that:

I can sympathise with the view that it is desirable that such restrictions on

access to material for the purposes of scholarship should be kept to a

minimum. The fact that inequalities in the treatment of library users can

arise because of the terms of the licence is one to which attention might be

drawn at the national level at which negotiations for licences of this type

are conducted.

6. I raised this matter with the Rt Hon Charles Clarke on October 6 and when I

did not receive an answer, I wrote to the Prime Minister on November 15 who

forwarded the correspondence back to the Education Secretary. At the time of

writing, I have not received an answer from the Department of Education. The

matter has now been taken up by the Rt Hon Tim Collins, MP, Shadow Secretary

of State for Education, who is in correspondence with the Rt Hon Alan Johnson,

the Higher Education Minister.

7. I attach copies of my correspondence with the Bodleian Library, the Vice

Chancellor of the University of Oxford, Downing Street, the Department of

Education, the Rt Hon Tim Collins, MP, and the Rt Hon Dr Ian Gibson MP (not

printed)

8. Although the number of people affected by the above library policy is minute

relative to the size of the population, it is the principle of the matter that is of

importance here as it is a form of censorship that is totally distasteful and

unacceptable. It is difficult to comprehend how university libraries that are

publicly funded can discriminate between its readers.

February 2004