Re: security issues (was JSTOR)

[Tom Williams <twilliam@bbl.usouthal.edu>]

Hi Jill,

I'm not sure which publisher you're referring to that "we are all aware
of."  However, walk-in access IS and HAS been a deal-breaker for us.  I'm
not aware of any exceptions we've made.  Having said that, people cannot
just come in to the library and willy-nilly sit down at a terminal and do
whatever they want.  All users have to log-in to the system with
individual IDs.  In the case of walk-in users, once we determine that thay
are legitimate users (not information brokers and the like) we log them on
with a library ID for specific periods of time.  We do charge them a fee
by the 1/2 hour to partially cover our costs of providing the service
(computer upgrades & the like).

As a resource library for NLM and as a public facility (State) we have a
certain obligation to provide services to the community.

-- 
Thomas L. Williams, AHIP
Director, Biomedical Libraries and
 Media Production Services
University of South Alabama
College of Medicine
Mobile, Al 36688-0002
tel. (251)460-6885
fax. (251)460-7638
twilliam@bbl.usouthal.edu

On Tue, 17 Dec 2002, Jill Emery wrote:

> I must take exception with David Goodman on some of the comments he has
> made on the list.
> 
> We try not to limit access to walk-in users but we all are well aware of
> one publisher who is adamant about not allowing walk-in patrons use of
> their resource and we've all complied to their requests not to allow
> walk-in usage or only to allow authenticated walk-in usage in order to
> meet faculty demands for this resource. Most recently, this publisher has
> even gone so far as to insist that the instructions for access to their
> resource on-campus be on an authenticated web page that only people within
> a certain domain have access to. We've complied readily to these requests
> because it is better public relations to restrict access to walk-ins then
> it is not to supply our faculty with a resource they insist they cannot
> live without.
> 
> We're a public, urban, academic research library with an institutional
> head count near 34,000 and an FTE of almost 27,000. We try our best to
> serve an amazingly diverse population but we must be realistic in our
> mission. We serve our students and faculty first and our local community
> second. We allow unfettered access to the majority of our electronic
> resources. However there are a few that we must restrict due to the
> license. I do not make walk-in usage a make or break license deal. Our
> community users do not have to pay to use these resources while our
> students do pay a library use fee that helps underwrite the support of
> electronic resources, the terminals on which the resources are available,
> and the paper costs. For this reason, we do not charge for any printing.
> 
> While the idea of pay per use does resolve many of the issues inherent
> with FTE & simultaneous usage pricing, most academic research institutions
> are hardly set-up to handle a pay per use model. In order to achieve that
> type of pricing model at the University of Houston would require an
> overhaul of our entire accounting division. This type of change will not
> be feasible for some years to come. In the meantime we struggle to find
> the balance between FTE costs and simultaneous usage costs.
> 
> What we've found on our completely open public terminals are abuses of
> copyright. Community users come in and attempt to print off all of the
> greeting cards from Yahoo!; we've had printers freeze up because multiple
> copies of the same text have been printed and when asking the community
> user why there were 7 copies of the same text, they stated they needed
> these to distribute to their friends and family. despite being told that
> this type of usage is not allowed, attempts are still made to make
> multiple copies of texts. Luckily our printers normally cannot handle
> print jobs of these magnitudes so we almost always catch the breach. At
> this time we're seriously considering disabling printing capabilities from
> these terminals and more than likely will do so in early 2003.
> 
> I'm all for free, unfettered access to our electronic resources when the
> rules and regulations of access are followed. When breaches occur, we must
> limit what is available and to whom it is available. All the signs and web
> page instructions in the world do not mean people will necessarily act in
> a scholarly way within the walls of a scholarly institution.
> 
> As librarians we should guard the intellectual freedoms of our patrons but
> not at the cost of the intellectual property owners.
> 
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> Jill Emery
> Director, Electronic Resources Program
> University of Houston  
> 114 University Libraries
> Houston, TX 77204-2000
> 713.743.9765
> 713.743.9778 (fax)
> JEmery@uh.edu
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^