Read why universities are taking part in the IEEE / IET Electronic Library (IEL) consortium for academic organisations in England, Wales and Northern Ireland from those representing universities.
1. Why is the IEEE / IET Electronic Library (IEL) an important resource for your institution?
Xplore [IEEE’s platform for IEL] contains full text access to core journals, conference proceedings, and standards going back in some cases to the mid 1850s. It is key content for the Open University’s Maths, Computing and Technology Faculty students, academics and researchers.
2. What are your thoughts on the proposed consortium for the IEEE / IET Electronic Library (IEL)?
It is a great idea in order to enable smaller institutions to be able to afford access to IEEE content. From the Open University’s point of view we support the consortium as a way of securing this core content on a firm basis, with more favourable terms for a greater number of UK universities.
3. How will the proposed consortium for the IEEE / IET Electronic Library (IEL) benefit your institution?
Being one of the largest existing subscribers, even though The Open University will not benefit from huge savings in terms of price, we especially welcome the price caps which at least allow us to plan our spend in uncertain financial times and improved licence conditions which allow for greater use of the content within our Virtual Learning Environment (VLE).
4. How will the proposed consortium for the IEEE / IET Electronic Library (IEL) benefit the wider academic community in your view?
It will help to make this content available for a wider group of students and researchers across the UK. This has got to be a major benefit for UK academic research and teaching as a whole. The consortia approach, as has been demonstrated by SHEDL in Scotland, allows access to expensive content for a group of users by sharing the costs and enabling access for a larger group of users.
5. How will access to the IEEE / IET Electronic Library (IEL) help your institution meet its requirements under the Research Excellence Framework (REF - http://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/researchsupport/policyandstrategy/research_assessment)?
Key journals are included. Citation information is available. IEEE content is highly regarded in the academic community in key areas of The Open University’s research portfolio.
6. Please provide any additional comments you'd like to add.
We also welcome the efforts that Content Online Ltd have put into securing and supporting this deal for UK Higher Education.
Completed by:
Fiona Bowtell, Learning and Teaching Librarian, Faculty of Maths, Computing and Technology and Claire Grace, Head of Content & Licensing.
Email: f.bowtell@open.ac.uk
Email: c.e.grace@open.ac.uk
Website: www.open.ac.uk
Fiona supports The Open University’s Faculty of Maths, Computing and Technology and Claire leads the team responsible for buying and licensing content from external suppliers.
1. Why is the IEEE / IET Electronic Library (IEL) an important resource for your institution?
Access to the IEEE / IET Electronic Library will allow our students and staff to access infinitely more information from the IEEE and IET than we currently hold in print. We currently have a small number of printed titles and limited access to electronic resources for this subject area. Access to the complete database would allow us to deliver all 2.8 million IEEE and IET articles to those who need them most, which would be an amazing asset for us. It is a very highly regarded resource.
2. What are your thoughts on the proposed consortium for the IEEE / IET Electronic Library (IEL)?
The proposed consortium arrangement makes access to this premier resource affordable for UEL. This is great for smaller institutions such as ours as without this offer at most we could expect to get access to a limited set of online titles.
3. How will the proposed consortium for the IEEE / IET Electronic Library (IEL) benefit your institution?
The IEEE is seen as a vital research resource by many of our academics and students. By lowering the cost of access the proposed consortium will allow us to move from a limited print based subscription to a comprehensive online subscription. Our departments of Computing, Electrical & Electronic Engineering, IT and Biosciences will all make great use of this resource. By having access to quality cutting edge research, held in the IEL, it will greatly aid our academics, researchers and students in their research outputs.
4. How will the proposed consortium for the IEEE / IET Electronic Library (IEL) benefit the wider academic community in your view?
This comprehensive resource should not just be available to a selection of larger universities. The wider benefit for the UK academic community is wider participation and increased dissemination of IEEE and IET Journals, Conferences & Standards. Citation and use of information is where its value lies: increasing the dissemination of information is vital for the research community.
5. How will access to the IEEE / IET Electronic Library (IEL) help your institution meet its requirements under the Research Excellence Framework (REF - http://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/researchsupport/policyandstrategy/research_assessment)?
REF requires us to collect information on Research Outputs as part of preparations for the Research Excellence Framework. We are collecting data from 2008 onwards. Access to resources such as the IEEE/IET Electronic Library will allow UEL staff and students to quickly and easily search millions of peer reviewed and highly cited papers in EE and CS. With the right research tools the quality of research output from UEL will increase and secure our position as a leading UK research institute.
6. Please provide any additional comments you'd like to add.
This consortium allows an excellent opportunity for a university that has a great need for access to the IEEE to benefit from the research resources at an affordable price. The consortium will only work if enough institutions decide to sign up to the agreement, so please help to make it work.
Completed by:
Ella Mitchell, Subject Librarian - Computing, Information, Technology and Engineering (CITE)
Website: http://www.uel.ac.uk/lls/services/computing.htm
Email: e.mitchell@uel.ac.uk
I am an active subject librarian; I take pride in the resources that we offer to our students and strive to get the best access to quality information for our students and academics.
