E-Reserves create paperless classrooms

Students may have noticed a slight change in some of their classes this semester.\nThe usual packets for course readings are fewer as many teachers have been making the switch to a new Web-based system put together by the School of Library and Information Science. \nThe new system -- called E-Reserve -- allows for any printed or electronic material, such as book chapters, journal articles, web links and more, to be placed on an IU server and then made available to the students.\n"For as big an installation as we have, it would have been a quagmire for us to do it ourselves," said Pat Steele, head of customer and access services for the Main Library. "We found a system called Docutek that was affordable and improving constantly."\nBy the fall of 2001, the library had received "strategic fund" money from the University to get the program started. The hope was that eventually the campus could establish a digital library.\nThe primary concern when dealing with published works is the issue of copyright infringement. All the necessary steps have been taken by those involved, and keeping everything legal is the most important element in making the system work, Steele said. \n"We follow strict guidelines regarding copyrights," said Catherine Berndt, reserve coordinator for the Main Library. "We can use 10 percent of a journal, issue or book, and if there are any discrepancies, we contact the publishers."\nUnder the Copyright Act of 1976, section 107 sets strict guidelines as to the purpose, nature and amount of any text that the E-Reserve system wishes to use.\n"We make sure to buy the book if it's not already owned and wanted on the Web site," Steele said. "I feel comfortable with the fact that we own everything we're putting up."\nJohn Bowles, an art history professor, said he and other professors decided to use the new system so they wouldn't get caught up in the current lawsuit filed against Collegiate Copies for copyright infringement.\nBy 2002, the IU-Bloomington system was made available for other IU campuses to pick up. IU-Purdue University Indianapolis dropped its homegrown system and picked up this system, along with IU-South Bend and IU-East Richmond.\nSteele said the system has only had one disruption since it got under way. The product has worked so well that nearly all the other campus libraries have picked up the system and contributed, she said. \nWhen the system first started, only the Main Library and the education school's library provided texts. Since then, all but two or three campus libraries have joined in adding to the now 22,000 documents that are in the system.\nWhile all of this brings about an exciting change of pace, the E-Reserve system is far from reaching its peak. \nThe libraries are currently working with Oncourse to try and collaborate in order to make things even easier for students. The plans would be to make the E-Reserves available directly from the Oncourse browser. This is just one of many possibilities for extended use out of the system.\n"(The E-Reserves) supports all format (including) video, sound, and images," Steele said. "Most people, when they get a new system, are just replicating what you did before, but I expect it to come around soon."\nSteele added that by January the libraries hope to be out of the paper business entirely. \nMore information on the E-Reserve system can be found through www.libraries.iub.edu.\n-- Contact staff writer Brian Janosch at bjanosch@indiana.edu.