University management of locally-created electronic resources: the CATRIONA II project

A summary of key aspects of the final report of the eLib-funded CATRIONA II project which investigated questions relating to the university management of locally-created electronic resources from a UK-wide perspective, but within the context of surveys and discussions carried out in Scottish universities. Quality electronic teaching and research resources, which are of significant value or potential value to academics, universities and the UK Higher Education community in general, are being ceated at high levels in all types of university. However, since they are not being created with the aim of wider access and use, few are networked, most are difficult to find or in difficult to access electronic formats, and consequently are unlikely to be suitable for reuse by other institutions or even other departments in the host institution. There can also be other problems such as a lack of clarity on the copyright position of resources on university Web sites and a failure to protect potentially valuable university resources from copyright infringement. University management of services offering access to these resources within and beyond the host institution would greatly improve the value that both the host institution and UK Higher Education as a whole obtain from this material and the effort that goes into creating it - particularly if local efforts were co-ordinated nationally to ensure resource design standardisation and service interoperability. Universities appear to regard the issue as important and see the advantages of managing services as outweighing the disadvantages. Most institutions appear to envisage University Libraries playing a key role in the management of services.