National Library of Australia  - Gateways

ISSN 1443-0568 | no. 73 | February 2005


Site Licensing—a National Issue

On 8 December, representatives of library organisations and consortia met at the National Library to discuss the issue of site licensing, with a view to ensuring that access to electronic library resources by Australians needing such access is as widely available as possible. The meeting, proposed at the 2003 Peak Bodies forum, started with some discussion of what is meant by the term ‘national site licensing’. It was agreed that it is unlikely that there are many products for which a true national site license would be appropriate. The needs of various library sectors differ considerably, and a range of approaches will be needed to achieve the best outcome.

The meeting was very positive, and a number of action items were agreed by those present. These are:

  • The National Library of Australia will convene a meeting of existing consortia in mid-2005 to consider the establishment of an annual forum for the exchange of information and discussion of issues of mutual concern at the national level.
  • The meeting in mid-2005 will consider the establishment of an annual roundtable between consortia, vendors and publishers to discuss issues such as licensing, access levels, copyright and pricing structures.
  • The Australian Government Libraries Information Network will facilitate a reference group of existing consortia which will develop a proposal for a core set of Australian electronic resources for a self-funded national site license, to be provided through the library sector to its users. The reference group will also define the audience for this core dataset.
  • The Australian Library and Information Association will develop a strategy to promote the availability of electronic resources in libraries to the public.
  •  The Australian Library and Information Association will continue to pursue the inclusion of library interests in the National Broadband Strategy as recommended in the Senate ECITA report Libraries in the Online Environment (Recommendation 7).
  • The Australian Library and Information Association will develop a strategy to increase the awareness amongst library staff of electronic resources and to provide training for support library staff in the use of these resources.

Information about the meeting, including the background papers and draft minutes, can be found at <www.nla.gov.au/initiatives/meetings/sitelicense/slindex.html>.
—Sandra Henderson, Coordination Support Branch

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