Campaign to liberate Information from The British Library

Dictated to Arcturus

This is a first step in a campaign to find out the British library is current policy to digital rights management in inter library loans and other facilities and then turn lobby opinion including government to change it. I believe that the current policy is at odds with the stated policy of Dame Lynne Brindley and that it is seriously counterproductive to scholarship in this country.

I had hoped that I would get support from academic research librarians both proactively and in my request yesterday it for information about into library loans. I asked for precise information on the procedures involved with into library loans from the British library. Send some of my current information may have come from non public sources I wanted a public correct statement from librarians. I know this blog is read by many librarians and I know that it was the morning after the election but I’m disappointed that no one has contacted me with this information. I am therefore going to pursue it by more formal means. Of course if any librarian reads this narrow I would be delighted for the information.

However there is a more serious failing in the university librarian system. I believe the policy about which I am concerned has been introduced in the last year or so. It is so counterproductive to scholarship that I believe it to be the duty of everyone in the library system firstly two and that the academic community to it and secondly it to campaign actively against it. However as far as I can see the library committee is completely and politicised and subservient two authorities such as the British library. I am therefore going to take measures to which there is a required legal reply.

I am going to ascertain what these procedures are by using the freedom of information act. The University of Cambridge is required to disclose information under the freedom of information act and I shall make an inquiry to ascertain the current procedures and rules for inter library loans. I shall use whatdotheyknow.com to send a request to the University of Cambridge. This request will be public the university, by law, there is required to respond within 20 days. They reply will be public and I hope it will be informative. From this I hope to gather both what the British library is policy and regulations are and what additional regulations (or possibly removal!) Are imposed by Cambridge.

The next phase will depend on the reply. If I have been misinformed about the utterly bizarre and counterproductive regulations then everyone will be happy. If however the regulations are what I believe them to be the and I shall pursue them with our newly elected member of parliament, Julian Huppert. This is of course the appropriate way to do it regardless of who the MP is, but there is the additional greater advantage that Julian is a research scientist and has worked in our group. I believe that he will have the same passionate desire to resolve this issue in favour of scientists as I do and previous champions such as Ian Gibson.

I shall start educating our readers of this blog, if they do not know already, how whatdotheyknow.com and writetothem.com work. The first example that will be a request I sent last year to the British library so that I know that the System Works.

Academic librarians to the need to campaign for what is necessary rather than what appears to be the rules.

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2 Responses to Campaign to liberate Information from The British Library

  1. Peter, apologies if I do not read your post correctly, but I do not seem able to make out what the trouble some policy is. It seems to have something to do with DRM on digitized content you like to get onto your computer/pad/phone via ILL, but are unable?

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