DCS Frequently Asked Questions (UK)
For HEIs based in the United Kingdom.
In the UK, 147 HEIs use the DCS, which is almost 77% of the HE sector. Over 90% automated their reporting to the CLA through the DCS last year. We also have users in the Republic of Ireland.
CLA is a not-for-profit Reprographic Rights Organisation (RRO) representing rights owners in the UK. RROs require usage data in order to fairly distribute licensing fees to publishers, authors and visual creators. Every year, all HEIs are required to report on the content they have digitised, as a condition of their CLA licence. Providing all digitisations are stored within the DCS, the HEI does not need to fill out any paperwork – the report is generated directly from the DCS. Automating your reporting alleviates a huge administrative burden at the end of the academic year, and allows RROs to allocate their fees fairly to creators.
All users of the DCS can upload their own scans in response to digitisation requests from lecturers. Providing these scans are covered under the CLA licence, these are made available for other HEIs to use as an alternative to scanning, as long as they already own the material in question. This means that all DCS users have access to over 450,000 digitised book and journal extracts, saving your library teams time scanning and organising files. If the extract you need is not available, you can upload your own content ready for other HEIs to share, or order it through EHESS (see below). The more HEIs that use the DCS, the richer the repository becomes.
The DCS also hosts over 290,000 publisher-supplied book titles. This content is in print-ready PDF form, providing the best online reading experience for your students. Eighteen publishers are currently represented: Taylor and Francis, Springer Nature, Wiley, University of California Press, Boydell & Brewer, Bristol University Press, Kogan Page, Amber Books, Pearson, Faber & Faber, University of Wales Press, Wordsworth Editions, Arcturus, Burleigh Dodds Science, Canbury Press, Polity, Authentic Media and Jacaranda. This list is evolving, and new content is added regularly. As with other items in the shared repository, an HEI will need to own the material if they wish to use a born digital extract in reading lists.
In partnership with the British Library, CLA are able to offer an efficient, cost-effective document supply service for all UK HEIs: the Enhanced Higher Education Supply Service (EHESS). The workflow is built into the DCS, giving an efficient, streamlined service. EHESS orders are charged on a per-order basis.
The DCS integrates with six major Library Management Systems: ExLibris Alma, SirsiDynix Symphony, Capita Alto, OCLC Worldshare, Innovative Sierra and PTFS Koha. Integrations are quick and easy to set up and allow automatic checks of ownership of material in your library catalogue.
The DCS also integrates with 4 major Reading List Management Systems: ExLibris Leganto, Talis Aspire, Kortext Keylinks and SirsiDynix BLUECloud. With an integration, digitisation requests can be made directly from the reading list itself, with links to students shared automatically, saving library teams time copying and pasting links to VLEs or other reading lists.
None of these integrations are essential. The DCS still works, and users can benefit from the shared repository, even if an institution doesn’t integrate with any of the above.
The DCS offers an integrated student reader to give your students a full online reading and learning experience, with the option to print and download. The reader is provided by Kortext, and students can create or sign into the reader with their Kortext credentials to access advanced features such as highlighting, bookmarking and email notes.
Students will need to authenticate in order to view the content you share via the DCS. HEIs can choose from EZProxy, Shibboleth or, OpenAthens, as well as IP authentication for on campus access. If your HEI does not use any of these methods, we can set you up with manual authentication.
Library and digitization teams do. Lecturers, tutors and students will never see the DCS interface, only the links shared on reading lists or VLEs. CLA’s dedicated DCS team will provide library teams with a full demo of the DCS and walk you through how to make requests based on your HEI’s preferences. They will also help you set up any integrations you may be interested in using.
Onboarding onto the DCS is very easy. We just need some information about your authentication, library management and any reading list management systems. If you already have digital copies created under your CLA HE Licence, we can bulk upload these into the DCS for you. The DCS team at CLA will guide you through the onboarding process, from start to finish.
In the UK, the DCS is available to CLA Higher Education licence holders at no additional cost.
Please contact the DCS team at the CLA via this email address: InTouch@cla.co.uk