Introduction

What is this book?

Published by the Association of Research Libraries and written by library licensing experts, this guide is intended for librarians and library professionals who license electronic resources (e-Resources). E-resource license agreements can be challenging to understand, much less negotiate. This guide is written for those professionals without legal training, and puts complex legal concepts and terms into understandable language. For each term of an e-resource license agreement, the book explores: essentials of the law, desired results, desired language, tricks and traps, and overall importance and risk. Additional sections and practical tools will be added over time.

Who are we, and who are you?

The authors of this book are lawyers or librarians (or both!) who work in academic research libraries. We are writing from our personal perspectives, and not on behalf of our institutions.

Our main goal in writing this is to provide licensing explanations and tips that can benefit licensing librarians or departments at other academic research libraries. That said, we believe the guidance will likely extend more broadly to other types of libraries, scholarly institutions, or research units that struggle with understanding and advocating for various terms when licensing content.

Not legal advice

Nothing in this book constitutes or shall be deemed legal advice. You should always consult with your institution’s counsel regarding the specific terms of any agreement, and to comply with local, state, or federal law or policy.

Feedback?

The authors welcome feedback from the library community to help shape future updates. You can provide feedback by e-mailing licensingbook@arl.org.