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For the Faculty of Philosophy at the RWTH Aachen University we have developed an electronic reserve shelf. It is currently being put to the test in selected classes. After the successful completion of this pilot project the electronic reserve shelf will be phased in at further faculties and institutes of RWTH Aachen University. The project aims at supplying students with literature regardless of location in a better, more comprehensive, and electronic way.
Therefore the electronic reserve shelf is integrated into L²P, the eTeaching/eLearning portal of RWTH Aachen University. It was developed in collaboration with the Center for Integrated Teaching and Learning Portals (CIL) and the University Library. The electronic reserve shelf is based on Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007 and was realized in cooperation with the CIL. The University Library participated in designing the digitizing workflow.
Lecturers as well as students will profit from the electronic reserve shelf as it supports the whole workflow: from academics finding literature to students downloading, reading, or printing digital texts. Lecturers and their assistants no longer need to compile master copies manually. It is also no longer necessary to arrange the terms of storage and use with the librarians concerned. The work load of the staff at the University Library will be reduced as they do not need to reserve several copies of the same title and lend them out to each student. Students themselves finally do no longer have to spend time on mindless routines like checking out and copying literature.
Lecturers have password protected access to the virtual L²P course room. The integrated graphic interface of the electronic reserve shelf allows them to compile reading lists with the help of our literature search engine Visual Library .NET. As Visual Library .NET delivers all necessary bibliographical data for each title, it can be forwarded to the University Library by just one click. The University Library not only receives the digitization order through L²P but also uploads the scanned text into Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007. All needed literature is then automatically available in the virtual course room for lecturers and students to use. Prospectively they will not only be able to download those files but also to import them directly into established bibliographic management programs through a metadata export interface. Thereby students and lecturers can use the recommended reading material instantly for their academic work and to prepare for lectures and courses.
In the future the electronic reserve shelf will be integrated into the writing environment of students and academics even more comprehensively. For example, it is planned to import references to specialized texts directly into Microsoft® Office and OpenOffice.org®. Also the number of searchable catalogues will be increased gradually. This all will make the supply of literature even more elaborate and convenient for the faculties concerned .
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