This document discusses best practices, pitfalls, and trends in electronic resource licensing. It outlines the five stages of the licensing process: discovery and investigation, negotiation and acquisition, activation and implementation, support and tracking, and evaluation and renewal. Common pitfalls at each stage like "going in blind" and best practices to address them like "know what your users and institution want and need" are presented. Current trends in licensing include standardized language, pay-per-view models, mobile access provisions, and how the Georgia State copyright case may impact future agreements. Resources for further information are provided.

1. Best practices, pitfalls and trends
Corey S. Halaychik
Assistant Professor & Electronic Resources Specialist
University of Tennessee
chalaych@utk.edu

2. 
An understanding of the five stages in the
electronic resource licensing process.

An awareness of common pitfalls in the
licensing process and best practices to
counteract them.

An idea of current trends affecting the
licensing of electronic resources.

3. Evaluation and
Renewal
Discovery and
Investigation
Support and
Tracking
Negotiation and
Acquisition
Activation and
Implementation

4. Offer – Receive initial license from vendor
Mutuality – Discuss terms and conditions
Acceptance – Parties agree to terms
Consideration – Payment exchanged for access
Enforcement – Penalty phase
Source: Association of Research Libraries. “Licensing review and negotiation.” 2003. Online Lyceum. ARL. Office of
Leadership and Management Services. URL: http://www.arl.org/training/licensing.html

5. Pitfall
Best Practice
Going in blind
Know what your users and
institution want and need
Not reading thoroughly
Ensure you have ample time
to read and ask questions
Contract law trumps
copyright
Expect the worst and
negotiate the best

6. Pitfall
Best Practice
Accepting “as is”
Show no fear
Failure to find
common ground
Know your “frenemy”
and find a win-win
Vague and confusing
language
Be specific
and leave no doubts

7. Pitfall
Best Practice
Failure to launch
Track progress
Confusion after revisions
Verify final version before
sending payment
Lapse in access
Ask for trial access
during finalization

8. Pitfall
Best Practice
Which version
is being used
Document each version
of the agreement
Paying too soon
Ensure final agreement is
signed by all before paying
The check is in the mail
Track progress to ensure
vendor is paid on time

9. Pitfall
Best Practice
File and forget
Perform periodic checks
Looking the other way
Address issues and hold
vendors accountable
Letting time slip by
Continue to track
and set reminders

10. 
Negotiations
 Be reasonable
 Be ready to handle objections

Keep the users, usage, and access in mind
 You want less barriers to access and legal protection

Make friends with your sales representative
 They love to hear from you

11. 
SERU
 Publisher and library agree to follow well-
established and widely-accepted common
expectations in lieu of a formal license agreement

Standardization
 Similar language used by vendors to allow
licenses to be understood correctly and more
visible to staff on the front line
 Statistical data (COUNTER and SUSHI)

12. 
PDA and Pay-Per-View
 Licensing models are changing to address
facilitation and portability between devices

Mobile Access
 Availability, cost, and parameters of a mobile
interface

Scholarly Sharing
 Changes to address non-library mediated sharing

13. 
Copyright
 Recent trend has been a move by rights holders to
place more limitations on sharing
 Georgia State University case was seen largely as
a decisive victory for fair use and libraries
 Could lead to more defined limitation language
showing up in agreements
 Could also give libraries more leverage to
negotiate favorable terms

14. 
Copyright Crash Course:
 http://copyright.lib.utexas.edu/l-cntrct.html

NISO SERU Homepage:
 http://www.niso.org/workrooms/seru

LIBLicense:
 http://www.library.yale.edu/~llicense/index.shtml

My email address
 chalaych@utk.edu