The Accessible Content E-Portal (ACE)

About the Service

OCLS and CLO have partnered with Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL) to provide college access to Scholars Portal’s Accessible Content E-Portal (ACE). ACE supports users with print disabilities at participating universities and colleges in Ontario by providing access to library books in accessible formats.

The Accessible Content ePortal (ACE) is a growing repository of accessible format texts available to college users with print disabilities. Aimed at making Ontario’s college and university library collections more accessible, the repository has thousands of texts in five accessible formats (2 types of PDFs, Text, DAISY, and ePub).

Users with verified print disabilities are given access to the repository to browse, search, and download texts, and they can also submit a request to their college library for additional texts to be added to the repository from the local collection.

ACE supports accessibility, AODA compliance, and creates equitable access to print materials for all library users.

College Collections

Participating college libraries’ ACE collections will include any items that are in the repository and that are available in print at their college library, regardless of which college or university submitted the item for digitization. Libraries may add items to ACE by submitting a digitization request for items that are available in print at their library, either at the request of an eligible user, or proactively by identifying items for digitization.

When a new title is added to ACE, an automated process checks to see if other institutions have that item in their catalogue. If so, it is added to that library’s ACE collection. If a library acquires a new item and it is already in ACE, the ACE coordinator must request access to that book using the digitization request form and selecting “This item is already in ACE.”

Eligible users can access the collection by logging in with a token provided by the college library. Users are able to view the titles of all books available in the ACE collection and will be able to download files for books in their college’s collection. When searching, users can choose to search or browse all items or easily filter to see only items they can access. 

Textbooks

Textbooks may be submitted to the ACE repository but will be deposited in a separate collection accessible only to college library staff through ACE admin tokens. Once the item has been added to the admin collection, library staff can share the accessible copy with the user who requested the item.

Internet Archive Print Disabled Collection

Titles from the Internet Archive Print Disabled Collection are available for use for all eligible ACE users. To request access to a title from the Collection, follow the instructions in the ACE guide here.

Eligibility

Library users with a documented print disability are eligible to use ACE. 

A print disability is defined as any disability that prevents a person from reading a book, including disabilities such as severe vision loss, learning disability, or the inability to hold a book. 

Colleges can offer access to eligible students, faculty, and staff at their institution. Each college must develop local policies for access and determine the level of proof the library will require from their users to satisfy the college’s legal requirements – whether that is to require them to register with disability services, require them to complete the self-declaration form, or another internal practice.

College libraries can make use of the self-declaration form available on the ACE Resources page to keep track of those to whom you have provided access as well as to ensure compliance with copyright.

Please note that the ACE terms of service as stated on the ACE login page indicate that students must be registered with disability services; this policy applies specifically to OCUL institutions. The Ontario colleges have a separate agreement with Scholars Portal and the Internet Archive and should follow their own local policy after reviewing the eligibility guidelines outlined in this document.

Resources for ACE Representatives

OCLS Website

OCLS’s Services ACE page contains important information and resources for college ACE representatives, including workflows, checklists, cheat sheets, and terms of service. ACE representatives can also access training and marketing material.

ACE Website and Staff Portal

The public-facing ACE website contains a series of tutorials and video guides created by Scholars Portal and FAQs about the service. The FAQ contains general information about the service and frequent issues and the videos and tutorials cover topics like on logging in, searching and browsing the repository, and downloading accessible formats. 

The ACE staff portal is a staff-facing website hosted by Scholars Portal that allows ACE representatives to submit, edit, cancel, and view past digitization requests in one location. ACE representatives can log in to the staff portal using their institutional login (there is one ACE account per college). The staff portal also contains some information and documentation for staff, as well as a feedback form. 

Note that the Scholars Portal ACE Digitization Service guide contains information about submitting digitization requests that may differ for universities and colleges, and therefore this resource should not be used by college library staff for digitization procedures or workflows. College libraries should instead follow the procedures outlined in this document and found on OCLS’s ACE page.

ACE Contacts

College ACE Representatives

Each college participating in ACE will appoint an ACE representative to administer the service locally, to act as a point person for OCLS, and to receive updates from OCLS and Scholars Portal through the ACE listserv. 

ACE Working Group

All ACE representatives are welcome and encouraged to participate in OCUL’s ACE Working Group, which meets bimonthly. The ACE service coordinator at OCLS and the AODA Committee chair participate in this committee and will share updates with college ACE representatives who do not attend.

Strategic Direction

Strategic direction for the ACE service is provided by the AODA Committee. Members of the AODA Committee will attend OCUL’s ACE Working Group meetings to represent the interests of the ACE colleges, and will share updates with the ACE colleges via the local ACE listserv as needed.

Tokens

ACE tokens provide access to the Accessible Content E-Portal. There are two types of tokens:

user tokens: for an eligible user with a print disability

admin tokens: for library staff (or staff in the college’s disability office)

Token Distribution

When colleges join the ACE service, and on a regular basis thereafter, ACE representatives should estimate how many tokens they require and submit a request to the ACE coordinator at OCLS (lrupert@ocls.ca). Scholars Portal recommends that colleges overestimate rather than underestimate how many tokens they may need, as they can be saved and distributed as needed in the future. Requests for tokens can be submitted at any time.

ACE representatives will receive their college’s assigned tokens in the form of a spreadsheet listing their user tokens and admin tokens. It is up to each college’s ACE representative and library staff to determine how they assign and track tokens locally.

OCLS and Scholars Portal do not need to know the names of users or admins who have been assigned tokens. 

Token Expiry

As of July 2020, Scholars Portal has set tokens to expire after four years. College library staff should keep track of when tokens are issued as they will not be notified of the expiration.

College library staff should also track the expected graduation dates of their ACE users and request the deactivation of the tokens of graduated students as needed. Email Lauren (lrupert@ocls.ca) to request deactivation of any tokens.

Digitization Request Procedures

If an eligible user at a participating college requests an accessible copy of an item in their college library’s print collection that is not currently in the ACE repository, college library staff may submit a digitization request to Scholars Portal via the ACE staff portal. Library staff may also proactively submit digitization requests for items in their library’s print collection without a request from a student. Institutions may wish to submit items for digitization for high demand materials in advance of a new semester or during slower periods.

Note that the college libraries have a specific workflow that is different than the process for Universities. There are digitization instructions on the Scholars Portal ACE Guide that are specific to the Universities and do not apply to the colleges. Please follow the instructions for colleges as outlined below and as outlined in the checklists and other documents found on the ACE Resources page.

Definitions

The requesting college is the college that is submitting an ACE digitization request.

The book contributor is the college that ships their book to the Internet Archive to fulfill a digitization request. 

Usually, the requesting college is also the book contributor. However, in some situations, the requesting college may not have a scannable copy that can be submitted to the Internet Archive for digitization. In those cases, OCLS will attempt to locate a scannable copy at another college who can act as the book contributor and submit an item for digitization.

It is important that this is marked clearly on the Bookmark Slip so that Internet Archive staff know where to return the book.

Digitization Request Workflow

User Requests

When a user requests an accessible copy from their college library, the college library should check first to see if the item is already in ACE, and if so, if it is in their college’s collection. 

If it is, then the library should check whether the user has access to ACE. If the user does not have access, then the library should follow their local policy to determine whether the user is eligible, and if so, follow internal procedures to issue the user a token and ensure that they are able to locate and access the accessible copy.

If the item is in ACE but not in the college’s collection, library staff should submit a digitization request and select “This item is already in ACE.” Once the item is added to the college’s collection, notify the user.

If the item does not exist in ACE, the college can request that the item be added to the repository. 

At this point, college library staff should check to see if they have a scannable copy of the physical item (see Scannable Copies, below, for more information on determining whether your copy is scannable).

If the Requesting College Has a Scannable Copy

Library staff will complete the ACE digitization form, which can be accessed via the ACE Resources page. If your library has a scannable copy, select “I will provide the item.” 

Once the form is submitted, you will receive an automated email from the ACE team at Scholars Portal, confirming the digitization request and providing an ACE request number. If you do not receive an email, check in RT for the ACE #. If it cannot be found in RT, please contact lrupert@ocls.ca. 

Prepare a bookmark slip, which can be found on the ACE Resources page, noting the ACE #. Prepare a return, prepaid waybill for the courier. Then package the item(s) to Internet Archive with the bookmark slip and the waybill. Please see Shipping Procedures, below, for more information on couriers, shipping policies, and preparing items for shipping.

If the Requesting College Does Not Have a Scannable Copy 

Library staff will complete the ACE digitization form, which can be accessed via OCLS’s ACE page. If your library does not have a scannable copy, select “Please acquire this item for me.” 

OCLS will be notified that a scannable copy is required, and OCLS staff will attempt to locate a copy through another ACE participating library. Updates will be communicated through RT. 

OCLS will consult with the library that owns a potential scannable copy to determine whether it is scannable, and then will prepare a bookmark slip and a return, prepaid waybill for the courier, which will both be emailed to the contributing college. 

The contributing college will package and ship the book to the Internet Archive with the bookmark slip and return, prepaid waybill.

Processing and returns

The Internet Archive will receive and scan the book, and return the book to the contributing library.

Scholars Portal will make the item available in the ACE repository to all colleges who own that book. The turnaround time for books is currently 1-2 days, but this may change in the event of very high volume of digitization requests. 

Once the requesting college library has been notified that the item has been digitized and processed, college library staff will notify the ACE user who requested the item that the item is available in ACE and ensure that they are able to access it.

Permalinks

The ACE digitization request form asks that you provide a permalink for each item. The Internet Archive has requested that you provide a permalink from WorldCat wherever possible. If you are not able to provide a WorldCat link, a link from the Colleges Union Catalogue is fine. Providing a permalink allows OCLS to easily locate the item if necessary, and it provides important information to Internet Archive that may not be contained in your local catalogue record.

Please test your permalinks when you are adding them to the digitization request form. If the link you provide is not a permalink, staff at ACE and OCLS will not be able to locate the item record as needed. 

In the Colleges Union Catalogue, click on Permalink to get the permalink. A pop-up box will appear. Highlight the entire link from the permalink field and copy it.

If you are including a permalink from your college’s OPAC, please test to ensure that it works. If it doesn’t, please locate your item in the Colleges Union Catalogue and include this permalink on your request form. 

For items from the Internet Archive Print Disabled Collection, please submit the “IA identifier” as the permalink (see the ACE guide for details).

Information for Contributing Colleges

If a college has submitted a digitization request for an item in their print collection that they have determined not to be scannable, OCLS will attempt to find a scannable copy of that item at another college library. If you have been contacted by OCLS to find a scannable copy of the book, please locate the item in your collection and assess it for scannability, following the instructions found in Scannable Copies, below.

If the item in your collection is scannable, OCLS will prepare a pre-paid, return waybill, and email that to you along with the completed bookmark slip. Please print these, and prepare the item for shipment along with both the bookmark slip and return waybill. Please see Shipping Procedures below for more information on preparing your shipment.

Once the item is received at the Internet Archive, the turnaround time is typically very short (1-2 days). Once the item has been scanned, it will be packaged for return shipment to your college. 

Scannable Copies

When submitting an item to ACE for digitization, please try to locate a copy that is in the best condition overall. However, you may have to balance this with other considerations such as the availability and ease of retrieval of alternative copies and the urgency of a request.

A Copy Is Scannable If

• Any marginalia or other markup is in pencil, is not too extensive or heavy

• There is highlighting (unless particularly dark to the point of obscuring content but this is not usually an issue)

• The binding does not run in the gutter. See Pencil Test below.

A Copy Is NOT Scannable If

• Content is missing

• Content is obscured i.e markup such as underlining or circling that cannot be erased

• There is extensive marginalia that cannot be erased, specifically textual marginalia That can be misinterpreted by the OCR screen readers as part of the text

• The binding runs into the gutter. See Pencil Test below.

• The book would be damaged in the process of digitization. 

  • Bending the spine to the equivalent of normal use is not a concern unless noted by lending library. 

  • IA staff will make any necessary judgment calls when needed.

IMPORTANT: if you do not have a scannable copy locally, you will need to indicate that on your ACE Digitization Request Form and OCLS will attempt to find a copy for you.

The Pencil Test

1. Lay the book flat on a table, and open it to the middle.

2. Place a pencil in the middle of the opened book.

3. If the pencil obscures any of the text, the book must be disqualified.

4. If no text is obscured, repeat this process in a few other parts of the text until you are reasonably satisfied that the binding is not too tight.

It is not a requirement for the book to be able to lie flat. If a book is tightly bound and does not lie flat, but passes the pencil test when held open, the item is still scannable, as the machine can hold the book open.

Shipping Procedures

Couriers

A return, prepaid waybill must be included with all shipped items. Colleges may use their preferred courier to ship books to the Internet Archive. The Internet Archive’s preferred couriers are FedEx and UPS, and they also deal with Purolator. They do not deal with Canada Post, as it is challenging for Internet Archive staff and outside of their normal workflow. 

If your college has a mailroom that handles the shipping, please ensure that they include a return prepaid waybill with the shipment. Please discuss what is required with your mailroom so that Internet Archive staff are able to arrange return shipment.

If you are submitting a book to the Internet Archive on behalf of another college, OCLS will arrange shipping for you through Purolator and bill back to the requesting college library.

Shipping Multiple Items

Package multiple items together in one box with one return label for the shipment. Each book in the shipment should have its own book slip which notes that item’s ACE number. This ensures a smooth process for the Internet Archive and ensures that items do not get lost. 

Note that packaging books separately will not result in faster returns, since the Internet Archive’s turnaround time is typically very short. Items are usually scanned and re-shipped within 1-2 days, and all items shipped together are scanned in succession.

If you are concerned about the weight of your packages, you may be able to check the weight of your books on http://www.amazon.com Most standard sized books weigh roughly half a pound.