The use of a digital rights management system for article delivery
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ywords: digital rights management (DRM), libraries, electronic document delivery, desktop access, Adobe Content Server Abstract This paper describes: (i) the use of digital rights management (DRM) systems in providing a secure electronic document supply service; (ii) the reasons for the use of DRM systems by document suppliers; (iii) the system adopted by the British Library, with reasons for the rejection of some systems; and (iv) some insight into how the chosen system has been received by users.
INTRODUCTION
Andrew Braid Head of Licensing and Copyright Compliance The British Library Boston Spa Wetherby LS23 7BQ, UK Tel: +44 (0)1937 546030 Email: [email protected]
The British Library is one of the world’s major research libraries with a collection of over 150 million items extending to over 600 km of shelving. The Library also offers services, including the supply of copies of articles from serial publications, to off-site users through its document supply services. The Library is in the process of realigning its strategy and its new vision is to ‘‘support anyone who wants to do research’’ by offering services that are ‘‘time and space independent;’’ supplying information to researchers whenever they want it and wherever they are located. This means that, for researchers who are not able to visit the Library’s reading rooms, the speedy supply of information to the desktop is a key component to realizing the vision. The only practical way of
achieving desktop delivery is by electronic means and so electronic document delivery (EDD) is a major plank in achieving the British Library’s vision. EDD is a relatively new addition to the older methods that libraries have used to supply copies of items that are not held in the local library. These are (i) interlibrary loan (ILL), which involves the loan of the book or journal issue and has been in place for over 100 years, and (ii) document supply, or the supply of a surrogate copy (usually a photocopy, but an electronic copy in the case of EDD) which has largely replaced ILL over the last 30 years. EDD can be very fast, almost instantaneous if the delivery can be directly to the user’s desktop and the article has been sourced from an electronic original. As a result
# Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. 1743–6559/06 $30.00 Vol. 2, 2 103–108 JOURNAL OF DIGITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT
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EDD has proved to be very popular with researchers, who can easily and quickly obtain copies of articles that are not held locally. However, publishers see the possibility of researchers obtaining copies of articles at almost the same speed as if they were available by subscription to an electronic journal, but without the need for that subscription, which entails loss of revenue to the publisher. Publishers are concerned that EDD gives libraries even more reason to cancel subscriptions to journals and rely on document suppliers and other libraries instead — the so called ‘‘just-intime’’ versus ‘‘just-in-case’’ argument. Publishers have voiced these concerns ever since traditional document supply
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