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Site licensing - a national issue
Introduction
Increasingly, libraries are providing access to information
through the licensing of electronic resources. While for many library users
this provides access to many resources which would otherwise be unavailable,
there are some concerns, largely because the licensing of electronic
information resources is usually a commercial arrangement, with vendors . Some
information users may have limited access to such resources because they fall
outside the core user communities for the libraries which subscribe to the
resources. Although most licences now allow for use by walk-in users in
subscribing libraries, they do not generally allow for offsite access by
non-core users. In some instances authentication issues restrict all use to
onsite users only.
The 2003 Peak Bodies Forum suggested that the National Library
convene a forum on the issue of site licensing from a national perspective. The
aim of the discussion will be to ensure access by as many Australians as
possible to as wide a range of resources as are required. A number of other
bodies have been discussing licensing and consortia in the past couple of
years, so many of the issues below are not new.
What is the purpose of site licencing at a national level?
At present in Australia there are many consortia serving various
user communities - higher education, state libraries, public libraries, public
health organisations. Each serve different (but often overlapping) communities.
Perceived problems include:
- inadequate funding,
- smaller institutions or consortia do not have the user base to
justify the cost of some resources,
- some institutions do not have people skilled in negotiation
and/or contract management,
- inequity of access between institutions and between sectors,
and
- some users are currently unable to access resources because of
lack of institutional affiliation (eg, independent scholars). User
authentication procedures may exclude walk-in or offsite users in some
organisations.
Is there a way to ensure all users, even those working as
independent researchers, have convenient access to the resources they require?
Resource issues
The proliferation of consortia would indicate that there is
generally some advantage to the formation of such groups to facilitate access
to electronic resources. For any particular institution, the issues would seem
to be:
- better pricing achieved through a consortial approach to a
vendor,
- reduced administrative overheads for individual consortia
members,
- consistency of access for users (eg, academics moving between
institutions),
- centralised negotiations with vendors on licence terms.
Lobbying
- Is there scope for increased lobbying by users (individual,
institutional, sectoral or consortial) to highlight the relevant
recommendations of the
Senate
Inquiry?
- Is a large consortium (covering expanded membership or a
consortium of consortia) able to exert any influence on product
development?
Issues for site licensing
For any national approach there will be issues to be resolved:
- Planning. Who will undertake strategic planning and develop the
strategic directions and business plans? How will this be done? How long would
it take?
- Infrastructure - licence administration, negotiations, legal
agreements with vendors, ongoing administration. Do new entities need to be
established to carry out such tasks? If so, how would this be done? Without
appropriate management, many broad licensing endeavours are likely to fail.
Sustainability is an important issue for all concerned.
- Would a series of site licences provide access to all potential
users, or are there still categories of user who lack access to the resources
they require? What should be the basis of cost sharing - user population,
budget, usage?
- How would any broader site licences be funded?
- Who decides national priorities in terms of resources? APAFT is
frequently mentioned as a candidate for broad site licensing, but are there
other very widely used resources? Is JSTOR one that should be considered?
Should there be an emphasis on Australian content? How much consultation is
necessary in choosing resources for consideration, prioritising, and
negotiating licence terms? How is agreement reached on content, on licence
terms.
- Are there opportunities for more centrally organised training
and user education programs? Do existing consortia cooperate in running
training programs and the development of training materials?
- How will the varying relationships between the state libraries
and public libraries influence the way a site licence might be implemented?
- How are "users" defined? Do individual users need to be
associated with an institution, or can they be independent of formal
affiliations?
- If a site licence is negotiated for particular library sectors,
would participation by individual libraries or consortia be voluntary or
compulsory? How crucial is participation level to the success of the
undertaking?
Existing consortia
- Broader site licences will cut across some existing consortia.
Is it desirable or possible that an existing consortia could become the central
administrative body for a wider site licence?
- Are there other roles for existing consortia in a new model for
wider site licences? There is a school of thought that the Australian market
already has too many consortia, but it is unlikely any wider site licensing
initiative would reduce the number of existing consortia, because each has
developed in response to specific perceived needs, which a broader-based site
licence will not address because of the difficulty in finding products which
have national appeal.
- Should an Australian group of ICOLC (International Coalition of
Library Consortia) be formed?
Communication
- For a licence to succeed, there needs to be adequate
communication between the users of the resources, and the administrative body.
How is such communication set up and maintained? How can it be done better?
- How are the resources promoted to users?
- How do users provide feedback?
- What communication channels could be set up between users and
their institutions?
- Is it possible to improve communication between vendors and
users on matters such as changes in content (titles added or deleted from
datasets), embargoes imposed on content from particular titles, and the quality
of content of datasets ?
Vendor issues
- Is a wider site licensing approach one which vendors will
support?
- Archiving of resources. Many individual and consortial members
will have concerns about long term support for subscribed resources. How are
vendors and publishers addressing the issues? Should there be national storage
for copies of subscribed content not held within Australia, to provide security
of access over time? CAUL's CEIRC group has done
some
thinking on the issue of preservation of access to subscribed resources
How do we get from the present situation, where many
Australians have little or no access to electronic resources, to a situation
where access is affordable and convenient for researchers, scholars and those
pursuing independent learning?

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