This document summarizes some of the complex issues involved in licensing electronic resources for institutions. It discusses how licenses define authorized users and site access, and the challenges of interpreting these definitions for various partnership arrangements, distance learners, alumni access, and evolving models of higher education. It also notes interactions with electronic resource management systems and the need to maintain records of historic licensing agreements over time.

1. Thorny issues in licensing: an
institution’s view
Louise Cole
Senior Information Advisor (Collections)
Kingston University
JIBS-Eduserv Seminar, Wednesday 16 June 2010

2. Summary
What do licenses do? Interaction with ERM
Partnerships: franchised Keeping the historical
and validated record
Joint courses Issues of interpretation
Commercial partnerships Trends in how universities
Alumni operate
Walk-in users In the future …
Distance learners
Site definitions

3. What do licenses do?
Set rules for who can use Model licenses generally
… what they can do and have the same basic list
how they can do it of clauses:
• Licensor responsibilities
… what they can’t do
• Licensee responsibilities
Provide an agreed • Security (who can use and
contract for use between how)
both parties • Payment
• Terms and termination

4. Who …
Current teaching, research and support staff on the
University payroll or on honorary contracts
Teaching staff teaching franchised or validated courses at
other institutions
Support staff (e.g. librarians) supporting students on
franchised or validated programmes of study
Students who are based at other institutions and following
franchised or validated programmes
UK or non-UK
Alumni, start-up companies, commercial partnerships,
academic partnerships, NHS …

5. Partnerships: franchised
Where the University has designed a course and
agrees that a partner college or other organisation can
deliver it on their behalf
Can be UK or international
Can be with other universities, with further education
colleges, with schools, with industry
Students are registered at the awarding institution but
wholly or partly taught elsewhere
Have access to all the resources of the institution to
which they are registered

6. Partnerships: validated
Where the University agrees that a course designed and
delivered by a partner college or other organisation meets
the standards required for the award of a University
qualification
Can be UK or international
Can be with other universities, with further education
colleges, with schools, with industry
Students are taught on programmes which lead to an
award from another institution
No access to awarding institution resources (except as
walk-in users)

7. Joint courses
University may co-run a course with another institution
(sometimes another HE or FE institution)
Some examples exist where courses are shared between
more than one institution (and students are ‘home’ at one
and have rights as student at the others); or even where
a faculty is jointly operated between two institutions

8. Commercial partnerships
Delivery of a course to a particular group of people in
some form of industry or service outside of an
educational establishment
Teaching courses which are sponsored by money from
commercial companies
Students on placement in industry

9. Alumni
• Students who have graduated but who are still
affiliated to the university as external paid members
• No longer ‘our students’
• Opportunities to offer them resource access as part of
their membership

10. Walk-in users
By far the largest group – and one covered by most
licences as long as the user is within University or library
property
Can be anyone from a member of the NHS or a local
college to a visiting member of the public
Universities need to ensure authentication controls have
been implemented to prevent access to material not
licenced for walk-in users

11. Distance learners
Students who are based wholly or partly away from the
home institution
May be based within the UK or abroad
Usually taught within the home institution for a short
period of time; otherwise taught by staff local to the
institution in which they are based
Students who are part-time and otherwise working within
a variety of sectors including hospitals, schools and
commercial companies

12. Site definitions …
UK: Oxford University Press: US: American Academy of
“In most cases, Oxford Journals define Pediatrics:
a site as being within one metropolitan
boundary i.e. within a city. So if all of “An “Institution” includes all parts of a
your institution's buildings are within single organization that are located
one city, you can apply for our within the same city and administered
institutional site license”. centrally”.
UK: BMJ Journals: US: IEEE:
“Institutions that have more than one
“We define a single site as one
physical location located more than five
geographic location (academic or non-
(5) miles from another location, may
academic) that is under a single
incur additional charged to access the
administration”.
licensed products. Groups of buildings
that share the same campus or are
located within five (5) miles of each
other will be counted as a single site”.

13. … and authorised users
OUP: IEEE:
“All members (employees, faculty, staff “Authorized Users” are (a) persons
and students) of the subscribing affiliated with Licensee as students,
institution site are entitled to online faculty or employees of Licensee; (b)
access … includes visitors …accessing persons physically present in
via terminals located on the site and Licensee's facilities; or (c) such other
under the control of the subscribing persons as IEEE may, at the request of
institution … includes members using Licensee and in IEEE’s sole discretion,
their home computers … authenticated authorize in writing to access the
by the institution via password Licensed Products”.
controlled access to an institutional BMJ:
proxy server, or via Athens”.
“means full and part-time employees,
AAP: staff, independent contractors and
“persons with a current, authenticated students who are officially affiliated with
affiliation to the subscribing Institution the Licensee at the Location valid
…includes full- and part-time students Internet Protocol (“IP”) address(es)
and employees …plus other individuals provided by the Licensee to Licensor or
who have permission to use the public via remote access …”
computers …”

14. Interaction with ERMs
Most ERMs allow licence information to be input and shared with
users through a public interface
Licences should be made available in a more machine-readable
format
Licences should be less legalese and more user-friendly: many
institutions do not have legal specialists dealing day-to-day with e-
resource terms and conditions
Reference to licence terms should be quick, easy, and searchable
Model licensing – is this still the way to go?
Inconsistency …

15. Keeping the historical record …
What we had access to in a previous licence (content,
perpetual access, holdings)
Who had access (defined authorised user and what if this
definition changes)
From where (on- and off-campus, UK and non-UK)
From when (backfile)
How could they access (IP, password, Athens,
Shibboleth, proxy)
Why …

16. Issues of interpretation
University says ‘these are our students as they are
registered with us’; provider says ‘they are not’
University says ‘we are single site even though we
maintain two campuses in different cities as they have
one administration and one IP range’; provider says ‘no
you are not’
University says ‘access is available to staff teaching on
our course at another university’; provider says ‘it isn’t’
University says that joint courses should mean joint
provision of resources; provider says ‘it should not’

17. Trends in how universities operate
Overseas campuses (Nottingham – China)
Overseas partnerships (Kingston – Greece)
Partnerships with industry (Manchester – pharmaceuticals)
Partnerships across sectors (HE/FE)
Joint initiatives linking universities together (Bristol – Bath – Rolls-
Royce)
Courses validated for the armed forces (Newcastle and MoD)
CPD and lifelong learning
Partnerships with local businesses
Partnerships with public libraries and museums

18. In the future …
As universities compete for students partnership
arrangements will be the way forward
Alumni and other external members will require enhanced
access to resources (especially in a print to e shift)
Every university will explore further innovation in its
strategic development: will licences be able to support
this in terms of resource provision?