Digital Course Readings

Information for academic staff about the Library's digital course readings collection

What can be added to the digital course readings collection?

May school or departmental staff add readings to Moodle in this way?

What are digital course readings?

Our digital course readings collection allows extracts from material which is not available in e-book or e-journal form to be supplied in the form of scanned readings. Library staff then add them to Moodle so they are available to students to access 24/7. Lecturers can link to the readings from an appropriate place in their module areas so that they are incorporated into their teaching material as seamlessly as possible.
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What can be added to the digital course readings collection?

Extracts added to the digital course readings collection must conform to the terms of the licence which the University holds with the Copyright Licensing Agency. Library staff can advise on whether particular extracts may be digitised, but as a guideline ALL the following criteria must be met:

material must be published in the U.K. or one of the following overseas territoties: U.S.A., Australia, Canada, France, Hong Kong, Ireland, Spain, South Africa or Switzerland
the number of pages to be digitised must not exceed 5% or one chapter or article of the whole of the published work or journal issue
the publisher or title should not appear on the lists of exclusions to the Licence. There is one exclusion list for U.K. publications and separate lists for non-U.K. publications (click on "see exclusion list" in the "scanning" column on this page).

What will it cost?

Supply involves a once-only cost: readings can be renewed from year to year at no recurring expense. As with other materials supplied by the Library, these costs are deducted from the Library financial allocation for your school.

Two types of cost are incurred:

Digitisation of extracts: currently £8.35 (October 2010). For items which are already in stock in the Library, normally only this cost is incurred.
For titles not in stock in the Library, we have to obtain copyright-clearance from the British Library. This means that there is an additional cost for copyright clearance. This varies from publisher to publisher but is normally between £5 and £25.

If the total cost of any single extract exceeds £50, we will consult your department for approval before proceeding with the order.
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What should I do next?

Please e-mail us with a list of the readings you would like us to add to the collection, or if you have further questions. Alternatively, contact your subject librarian for advice.

Please supply the following information about the module to which the reading(s) apply:

Module name
Module code
Course details, degree, year
Lecturer's name
Student numbers (essential)
Term(s) in which module is taught

May school or departmental staff add readings to Moodle in this way?

No. Staff in schools and departments are not authorised to make scanned copies of published material for students without the permission of copyright holders. Please contact the Library if you would like more information about digital course readings.

Our page on Copyright and the VLE gives advice about making material available to students via Moodle without contravening copyright law or licence terms.