What should be in a licence?
The following is a list of items that should be specifically included in a licence for electronic journal content. The list is derived from information supplied from members of the ASA/ICOLC group. The list is deliberately simple and in bullet-point form rather than as these points might actually occur in a license. Occasionally there are statements like 'as defined by US Copyright Law', obviously this would need to be redefined for other countries but offers a starting point for consideration of the issue being raised. This list is not intended to include all items which should appear in every licences, but rather as a check list to make sure that no important aspects have been omitted by mistake. The list is organised roughly by the importance of the items. That is those that are considered more important appear at the top of the list, however this is at best a rough guide.
- Agents
- right to use and pay through agent/intermediary for both paper and electronic titles if desired
- Definition of authorised users to include:
- students, faculty, staff, administrators,
- affiliated offsite and admin faculties use
- incidental public use through computers in library facilities
- remote users, overseas students etc
- ILL and existing copyright provisions
- Inter Library Loan (ILL) from electronic files directly or from print outs made from electronic files within the CONTU guidelines, no additional record keeping beyond that required for ILL.
- Class-room use as defined by US copyright law (creation of multiple copies in print or digital form for classroom instruction) and course packs
- Fair Use by authorised users as defined by US copyright law
- Usage statistics
- Frequency of supply and delivery method to be stated
- Statistics to be provided in accordance with COUNTER and ICOLC guidelines and at suitable level of granularity
- Include comparative information to enable context of figures to be determined
- Vendor should supply periodic lists of IP addresses they have authorised matched to the corresponding institutions or other appropriate entity.
- Access method by IP address rather than password
- Backfiles availability top be stated last three years or more desirable
- Archive and perpetual access
- Perpetual access rights after end of subscription and means to access the material stipulated
- Post publisher/vendor change access rights, including backfiles to be stipulated. (Note the ALPSP Code of Practice.)
- Provision to allow local archive through a digital copy on site if no archiving policy stated with reasonable access means
- Relationship to print to be specified including:
- Description of electronic content and differences with print version if any. Should include all content found in print version
- Availability concurrent/before/after print
- URLs
- Stable and durable URL for each title required rather than unique session identification URL
- URL checking by 'robots' permitted
- Formats used in content should be identified eg those relating to images and text
- Linking should be supported at article level from library catalogues and A&I services including Xref support and metadata for example
- High bandwidth connectivity should be specifically included eg T-1 connection as a minimum requirement. Alternate internet access in case the original should become unavailable should also be specified.
- Notification procedure for adding new titles to the licensor's site to be stated.
- Price model should be stated and include basis of charging ie
- site or concurrent user
- FTEs
- by institution or site
- by usage
- number in consortium
- relationship to current expenditure
- subsequent year pricing
- renewal schedule
- central or distributed billing
- cancellations
- business model to encourage move from print to digital
- MARC Records
- Availability
- Maintenance method (eg stable URL entered into MARC field 856)
- Cost
- Service levels should be stated ie 24/7 availability, collaboration to identify and correct errors and omissions
- Disability: should comply with national or state (US) legislation by supporting assistive software or devices eg large print interfaces, voice activated input, alternate keyboard or pointer interfaces. Where applicable the website should display a Bobby approved rating icon (www.cast.org/bobby)
- Enhance or reformat data allowed if content and integrity are preserved to make the data more visable or convenient for users
- Cancellations
- Cancellations of electronic journals should be allowable on a title by title basis.
- Where a consortium member has purchased individual access to a product now licensed by the consortium, the member should be permitted to switch to another product for the duration of the individual subscription.
- Discontinued journals
- Written notice required in advance of the journal being discontinued sufficient to enable library to make alternative arrangements.
- Credit for discontinued titles pro-rated for the balance of the contract term
- Parties to the licence should exclude authorised users - licensee is not responsible for their use
- Authentication
- should not be a requirement and no system required should act as a barrier to users.
- proxy servers permitted
- Dual licensing. Licenses posted on websites should provide users with the same terms as the institutional agreement
- Confidentiality of individual users confidentiality to be maintained. No user data to be reused or sold without permission
- Renewal notices should be issued 120 days in advance
- Termination of licence in cases of suspected license violation publisher to give 15 days notice of termination. Licensee given 30 days to cure problem before termination of the license
- Posting of licence terms to web site or made available to users should be permitted with all references to business terms and names removed.
- Facilities for badging should be stated ie whether vendor or institution generated. Licensee should be permitted to configure a welcome screen clearly identifying the licensing entity.
- Training facilities should be specified including materials, training for trainers and expanded access for training if required (eg for licences involving simultaneous users) er model)
- Trial access period and access method should be stated.
This list is not exhaustive and you are invited to contact the ASA to add any suggestions for inclusion or deletion.
