The Scholarly Communication Crisis

Licensing issues affecting the scholarly communication crisis:

Steep price increases are not the only obstacles faced by academic libraries that offer networked access to scholarly journals. The licenses that regulate content must be scrutinized so that the terms of use are consistent with the mission of the research library of a land-grant university, to make knowledge widely available to campus faculty and students, and also to state residents as individuals or through other libraries.

When library staff examine commercial publishers' licenses, they must be alert about key provisions that include:

  • Use by walk-in readers. The library does not expect publishers to allow "free" access over the Internet, but members of the general public must be allowed to read online journals if they visit the library, just as they have been able to read the paper versions of journals.

  • Recognition of the Inter Library Loan rights of libraries. The MSU Libraries support learning across the state through ILL assistance to smaller libraries. The transition from paper to digital versions of journals should not require libraries to surrender their legal rights under "Fair Use" and the terms of 17 USC 110. Because digital technology allows fast delivery via the Internet, we seek licenses that allow the use of the newest ILL devices.

  • Use of digital text in e-reserves and electronic course packs. Since the campus community has paid for access to these texts, common uses must be permitted: for students, this service can be a partial remedy for high textbook costs.

  • Permanent archiving. It is the library's mission to secure texts for centuries, so digital formats must address this issue in terms of access rights and secure storage (including migration to future formats).

  • Statistical reports of usage. Use can no longer be gauged from worn volumes or reshelving counts: online products therefore should indicate how often content in a journal is being used.

  • Privacy and confidentiality. Usage reports should not track or reveal usage by individual readers.

  • Enforcement of license clauses. The library should not have to assume a policing function.

Several thorough longer statements are available that explore these issues in greater depth. Two good examples are:
   
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Page created by StevenSowards.
Last updated October 20, 2005