Providing access to content and resources has changed in the evolution from print to electronic. Access no longer implies ownership or borrowing of a physical item from another library. Increasingly, access is provided through licensed resources, which are not purchased outright. This shift has brought about the requirement for a new role in libraries and information centers of Electronic Resources Librarian. This role requires a different skill set that is not necessarily taught in library school and which is most frequently developed on the job. The goal of this book is to provide a foundation for a new electronic resources librarian in the basics of copyright, licenses and management of electronic resources.
Becky Albitz is the electronic resources and copyright librarian at the Pennsylvania State University. She has extensive experience in media, licensing and copyright, including co‐teaching the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) online licensing workshop. In this book, Albitz effectively conveys the most important issues involved in e‐resource management. She starts in Chapter One with an overview of US Copyright law and specifically Title 17, which articulate the rights that authors have under the law as well as the various exceptions that allow different uses of a copyrighted work. A discussion of the difference between copyright and contract law is also included providing an explanation of why the distinction is important in the licensing process.
While the focus in Chapter One is on US Copyright law, this should not deter non‐US librarians from finding this book useful. The rest of the book is an in‐depth look at the different steps involved in the licensing and management of e‐resources, from understanding your institution and its needs to successfully negotiating a license and the ongoing management of the resources.
Much of the book is devoted to going through a sample license section by section. It not only provides definitions of terms commonly found in license agreements but also talks about the purpose of each section, discussing potential concerns. It should be noted that the book is aimed at academic librarians and therefore the focus in this section is on assuring the needs of academic institutions in the license. These needs can be different from the needs of non‐academic and, especially, commercial organizations, but this does not make the book less relevant to librarians in those settings. Much of what Albitz describes can be applied in any setting where one is managing electronic resources.
Albitz concludes the book with a discussion of model licenses and license alternatives. This brief chapter highlights an issue that has become increasingly important as more and more resources are licensed electronically. Organizations have to deal with dozens of individual licenses, each of which is at least slightly different as each is developed separately by each individual information provider. In response to this situation, several versions of a “model license” have been developed jointly by libraries and information providers. Albitz lists four organizations that provide model licenses, including the license developed by John Cox Associates, which she uses as the sample license in the book. Another model license that this author is aware of is the model license developed by the Pharma Documentation Ring (PDR) and a group of publishers, which was first, developed in 2000 and updated in 2007. It addresses the unique licensing needs of the pharmaceutical industry. Details are available at: www.p‐d‐r.com/Licence/STM_PDR/stm_pdr.html
A brief discussion of the work that has been done under the umbrella of NISO (the National Information Standards Organization) around coming up with an alternative to the license is included. The Shared E‐Resource Understanding (SERU) was developed by a small group of librarians and publishers representatives as a statement of common expectations of both libraries and publishers and is intended to replace a legal contract. Wide adoption of SERU, while not eliminating the need for an electronic resources librarian, would allow these librarians to shift their efforts from the time‐intensive activities of negotiating licenses to managing the resources themselves.
Given the emphasis today on electronic resources in libraries, there is a need for librarians with the skill set to handle the many facets of managing these resources. This book is successful in its attempt to fill the gap between what is taught in most library schools and the knowledge necessary to become a successful electronic resources librarian. As such, it would be a valuable text for a course on e‐resource management or as a handbook for someone new to this role.
