In response to Sarah's question about a central repository of
information about licences, I thought it would be worth mentioning a
report we have just finished. Although it is not strictly about
perpetual access so much as archiving (though the two clearly overlap),
Rightscom and Loughborough University recently completed a JISC-funded
scoping study for a registry of where (and by implication, if)
e-journals are being archived. We found that indeed, libraries do want
to know not just if e-journals are being archived, but what their rights
of access would be if they had cancelled print and subsequently, for
whatever reason, no longer had current access. One of the complicating
factors for providing this information to each library from a 'central'
location (or via a distributed network solution) is in fact the
information gaps and uncertainties in terms of the history of licences,
existing on both the institution and publishers' sides e.g. what is the
status of 'free with print' e-subscriptions in terms of perpetual access
and issues arising from title transfers between publishers, as well as
mergers between institutions, and so on. You can read the report here
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/programme_preservation/2008ejo
urnalregstudy.aspx
I'm sure many people also know that there is a requirement in the Nesli
licence from this year for publishers to tell institutions 'from time to
time' where their archive is located. Again, I realize this isn't the
same thing as knowing you have perpetual access!
Sue Sparks
Rightscom Limited
Linton House
164-180 Union Street
London SE1 0LH
Tel: +44 (0)20 7620 4449
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