Librarians, Publishers, Distributors
to Develop Standardized Licenses
Five leading journal subscription agents are collaborating to produce a suite of standardized licensing agreements for e-journals that are clearly written, succinct, and flexible enough for a wide range of library customers. The Blackwell, Dawson, Ebsco, Harrassowitz, and Swets companies engaged the services of John Cox, an international publishing consultant, to come up with suggested wordings.
In a press release, Cox said the licenses “do not prescribe solutions to the many differences that arise in negotiations . . . but they . . . express most of the likely outcomes.”
Four agreements have been developed to date (two academic library licenses, one for public libraries, and another for corporate and special libraries), in consultation with a group of librarians, publishers, and distributors that met at ALA’s Annual Conference in New Orleans last month.
One member of that group, Ohio State University/Columbus Head of Serials Trisha Davis, told American Libraries that the agreements will have the effect of “honoring and respecting the intellectual-property rights of publishers as well as the fair-use rights of librarians.” The model licenses will be mounted on a Web site later in the summer.
Posted July 26, 1999.
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