How to Use This Book

Terminology

It can be helpful to keep the following terminology in mind while reading this book.

“Institution” or “licensee” both refer to your organization, the one that is licensing the content. Maybe your institution is a university, college, research organization, academic library, or public library. All that matters for understanding these chapters is that your institution is the legal entity licensing the content, and so becomes the licensee.

“Publisher,” “vendor,” and “licensor” all refer to the legal entity that is licensing you the content. Sometimes you might be licensing the content from the actual publisher, but in other cases an aggregator (or vendor) of various publishers’ content. Sometimes a license agreement might refer to the licensing entity merely as “company.” In any of these situations, the entity or company that is licensing the content is considered the licensor.

“Content,“ “materials,” “e-resources,” “licensed materials,” and “licensed content” can all refer to whatever the “stuff” is that your institution is licensing from the licensor. Licensors can refer to the materials by any of these terms, so you should familiarize yourself with them.

Feedback appreciated

If you would like to see something added or addressed in this book, please feel free to reach out to the relevant chapter authors at their institutional e-mail addresses.