Times Digital Archive

[Chris Pointon]

I have this evening received the following e-mail from Bedfordshire Libraries:

Unfortunately we have to inform you that from Monday 4th February you will no longer be able to access The Times Digital Archive, InfoTrac Newspapers Magazines and Journals and the Gale Virtual Reference Library. This is because it has been brought to our attention that we were in breach of our licensing agreement with Cengage, the supplier.
If you are able to visit a Bedfordshire library you can upgrade your membership, collect a library card and regain access to all the above resources.

What I am not sure about is when I drive a considerable distance to collect this library card can I access the Times Digital Archive online again but I don't think that will be the case.
Should a reader live in Bedfordshire perhaps they could establish some more facts.

This was a useful resource and I am extremely annoyed with Cengage who are denying me accesss to the archive online.

Chris

[Stewart McLoughlin]

Darn drat and double-drat.
E.mail to:-
BedfordshireLibraries@bedfordshire.gov.uk
expressing disappointment and asking for re-assurances.
Stewart

[Ken MacLean]

Bedfordshire Libraries were indeed in violation of their contract with the supplier of the 'Times ' on-line service.

BL had allowed people to gain unauthorized access to the service by joining BL as "virtual members", many of them not even resident in the U.K. , never mind Bedfordshire.

The provider is fully justified in taking this action. After all , it is a commercial enterprise that relies on paid subscriptions to stay in business.

[Stewart McLoughlin]

Bedfordshire Libraries have no doubt paid a fee to access the agreed commercial site.
Of the 1/2 million people in Bedfordshire, how many are active library members, and how many are active users of the site? 2nd part, not many I'll bet.
The company have received their fee for the minute numbers from Bedfordshire who will use the site, next thing we'll have BL saying pound/per/user it's not commercially used by the small numbers in Bedfordshire and they will close their subscription altogether.
I'm a member of the local Uni. library were I can get into the archive from their systems, 24/7/365 (366 this year), but I have to travel into town, there's nowhere to park, or it's two buses. It just makes it convenient to do it at home.
I have been pursuing my Library service to buy into the archive, like Bedfordshire, but so far without success.
Are the couple of hundred active members of this site (and how many of these use the archive that much), going to break the company's bank? As a result of this, how much historical matching-up is not going to be confirmed / lost? Non-residents of my County can sign-up to our Library service and receive it's benefits. There is the inter-library loan facility, where if a book / CD is not held locally, they will source it from wherever in the UK, and I pay a nominal charge of 60p which wouldn't even pay the postage one way for some of the volumes I have borrowed through them. If I can access the written word, why not the virtual word?
Whilst accepting without reservation they are a commercial company, they have received a fee that potentially 1/2m people could use, when in fact the number of users can probably be counted in hundreds.
I suppose really we should be campaigning our Library Services / Department for Education to have the facility piped to all library services, and remotely accessible through them, as a Life Long Learning facility.
Stewart

[Ann Sadler]

Hi all.

I can access at home or at work (time permitting). If there is anything that anyone desperately wants looking up I'll have a go for you.

Regards,

Ann

[Mapky]

I'm a 10 minute walk away from bedford central library, not a regular user but i'll see if i can pop along there one day and see if i can fish anything out .... got to find my users card first from somewhere first though !!