UK Computing Plus Reports

The following full reports are available to download in MS Word Format:

UK Computing Plus Pilot Project Interim Report
Sara Marsh - February 2003

Summary: Publicity for the project was limited to registered borrowers at the six pilot sites (ie those eligible to use the service). Take-up at the time of writing was low. Task Force representatives had attended a useful meeting with CHEST where future model licence terms were discussed. Student evaluations would take place at the end of the project; in the meantime additional sites were invited to join the pilot exercise.

Summary of UK Computing Plus Evaluations
Sara Marsh - July 2003

Summary: All students eligible to use the pilot Computing Plus service were asked to complete an evaluation form. 22% responded (137 people), the majority being postgraduates. About 50% of respondents had used the service. Of those who made no use of the service, the majority stated that they were unaware of it, indicating that publicity to target users had not been very successful. Of those using the service, the majority had used e-journals and databases rather than wordprocessing, email or the Internet, indicating that the main demand was for access to electronic information services (in line with reference access to hard-copy publications). There was strong support for UK Computing Plus being extended to other universities, and a request for better publicity.

UK Computing Plus Pilot Project Final Report
Sara Marsh - August 2003 (updated March 2004)

Summary: The pilot project proved that there was a demand for visitor access to computers in HE libraries, and that this was largely related to visitors' wishes to access electronic information services rather than software applications or email. After the initial effort in setting up a UK Computing Plus service, day to day management need not be problematic. The CHEST review of model licence conditions suggests that access to electronic information services and datasets should normally be legitimate for "known" visitors, ie where the institution can trace use of services back to a known individual. The UK Libraries Plus Steering Group now seeks to "mainstream" the UK Computing Plus service by inviting member libraries to adopt services similar to those offered by the pilot sites. A toolkit has been prepared to help with this.