Approximate time to complete: 3-6 hours (1-3 hours to review the material, and 3 hours for the assignment putting learning into practice).
Learning objectives:
After completing this lesson, you will be able to:
- Read and evaluate a license to determine how well it meets basic criteria and goals.
- Understand how licensing decisions impacts library services, research, teaching, and learning.
- Approach colleagues in other departments to build relationships and support.
Table of Contents:
- WATCH, LISTEN, OR READ
- Introduction to Contracts & Licensing
- Chapter 1: Lesson introduction
- Chapter 2: Anatomy of a contract
- Introduction to Contracts & Licensing
- READ
- Chapter 4 of Managing Licensed E-Resources: Techniques, Tips, and Practical Advice, “The Joy of Licensing and Contracting for E-Resource Acquisition”, or
- If you’re in Canada, read the Canadian Research Knowledge Network’s model license for language to compare.
- Syracuse University Libraries Licensing Principles
- The ASERL Eleven
- WATCH, LISTEN, OR READ
- Introduction to Contracts & Licensing, Chapter 3: Overview of contract terms
- DO: Putting Your Learning into Practice
- Exercise: The Audit
- Exercise: Nondisclosure agreements
- Helpful Tools & Readings
- Group Activities & Discussion
WATCH, LISTEN, OR READ
The video is provided by YouTube. This video is broken up into three chapters. We recommend that you watch the first two chapters within the video now and watch the third chapter after completing the reading outlined below.
- Introduction to Contracts & Licensing (30:35) (PowerPoint with Notes)
- Chapter 1: Lesson Introduction (5:44)
- Chapter 2: Anatomy of a contract (13:09)
READ
- Chapter 4 of Managing Licensed E-Resources: Techniques, Tips, and Practical Advice, “The Joy of Licensing and Contracting for E-Resource Acquisition” by Joan Emmet. This chapter will take you through essential definitions and structures augmented by the short lectures. For our colleagues in Canada, read the Canadian Research Knowledge Network’s model license for language to compare.
- The Syracuse University Libraries Licensing Principle
- The ASERL Eleven: Plain Text
WATCH, LISTEN, OR READ
This video links to the third chapter in the Introduction to Contracts & Licensing video.
DO: Putting your learning into practice
The Audit and Non-disclosure Agreement Exercises are also found in the Foundations Workbook (docx download, PDF download).
- Exercise: The Audit (.docx download)
- Exercise: Nondisclosure Agreements (.docx download)
Both of these scenarios are based on experiences from a variety of academic library settings. Each scenario has a series of questions which require balancing vendor expectations, stakeholder demands, and library values in order to answer.
For even more practice, visit the SPARC Contracts Library and select any two contracts from the same vendor, but from different institutions. Review the contract terms using the techniques described in Chapter 4 of Managing Licensed E-Resources: Techniques, Tips, and Practical Advice and in the lecture.
Helpful Tools & Readings
- California Digital Library Licensing Toolkit
- Wilson, M., & Cronk, L. (2022). The NERL Playbook. Commonplace. https://doi.org/10.21428/6ffd8432.2b8579b0
- Iowa State University Principles for Advancing Openness through Journal Negotiations
- Indemnification as a Result of Security Breach | EDUCAUSE
- Wells, Dominic and Peters, Trey (2022) “Retrenchment Clauses and the Problem of Force Majeure: Evidence from AAUP Chapter Collective Bargaining Agreements in Ohio,” Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy: Vol. 13, Article 2. DOI: https://doi.org/10.58188/1941-8043.1879
- Thornton, J. B. & Brundy, C., (2021) “Elsevier Title Level Pricing: Dissecting the Bowl of Spaghetti”, Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication 9(1), eP2410. doi: https://doi.org/10.7710/2162-3309.2410
Group Activities & Discussion
If the curriculum is being completed by a group, these activities can help the group learn together. (docx download) (pdf download)