> > this has screenshots of the BL charges. I entered into considerable > correspondence and I think the conclusions was that it was too much trouble > to work out what articles were open access so it was easier t charge for > all of them. I have no idea where the money ended up. > > The BL did say that if you came to the actual reading room at St Pancras it > was free (but you have to pay the train fare). > > But maybe it's changed after 5 years and maybe it hasn't. I don't have time > to check.
I would add my various experiences with this national library (I am interesting if its different in other national libraries) In search of a famous article on topology by Listing written in the 1850s, I did indeed visit St Pancras a few years back. 1. Whilst it is "free" to be there, they did charge something like ?1 per photocopied page, which of course cost ?40 for a 40 page reprint. 2. I asked if they could provide the scans on USB drive (which I had taken with me). The answer was no. 3. I recently made a request on line for a journal which my own library does not subscribe to, using a system known as SED (secure electronic delivery). Understanding the semantics of "secure" is an interesting exercise. One might imagine that the interests of the reader were being served by "secure delivery". In fact, the term secure refers to the interests of the publisher, in that it implements DRM (digital rights management) which protects the document from unauthorised actions. 3.1 A permitted action for the reader is to request one print copy. This is achieved by by-passing the normal print driver interfaces and enforcing a special print driver. 3.2 I immediately fell foul of this. I have on my computer a selected printer which uses itself an "authenticating" driver, which associates any print operation with the user's swipe card. The SED document could not access this driver, and my one allowed attempt at a print failed because the job was not authenticated. 3.3 Forbidden actions upon the SED document include any attempt to copy/paste data out of that document. 3.4 Or to insert the document into any software that attempts to detect metadata contained within it. 3.5 The document itself has a finite life, and the only permitted permanent instance is that single print copy (which I did not end up with).
