**Apologies for cross posting**

JISC Collections launches new tool to help its members manage e-resource licences
Electronic Licence Comparison and Analysis Tool, 'elcat' (www.jisc-elcat.com<http://www.jisc-elcat.com/>) released for 2012 pilot with 80 e-journal and database licence agreements

One of the many challenges facing librarians in the move to electronic access to e-resources is managing the ever growing number of licences governing the use of those resources.
To help address this issue, JISC Collections has worked with DataSalon, EDItEUR and Red Sage Consulting to develop the Electronic Licence Comparison and Analysis Tool, 'elcat'.
Following development and testing with academic libraries in 2011, elcat launches for a 10 month pilot phase with 80 key NESLi2, database and archive licences with more to be added in the coming weeks and months.
In this pilot phase we want to establish if elcat allows librarians to easily:

*         discover what users can and can't do with different electronic resources

*         identify differences between the JISC model licences and the licences for agreements based on the model.

*         compare different licences with each other

*         download licence expressions for use in library and electronic resource management systems

Liam Earney, who led the development from the JISC Collections side commented:
"We hope that elcat will help save our members time managing their licence agreements and helping their users get the most out of e-resources. We see this year as an opportunity to test elcat, collect feedback from institutions so we can develop the tool further, and look forward to working with publishers, systems vendors and subscription agents to widen the take up and implementation of machine readable licences. Thank you to our partners and institutions for getting us to this point"

elcat is hosted by our partner, DataSalon, and access is via UK Access Management authentication. You can access the elcat service at www.jisc-elcat.com<http://www.jisc-elcat.com/>

To help with the introduction to the service, we are hosting two webinars on 15th and 22nd March from 2 pm to 2.45 pm and hope many of you will be able to join us.

Please register your interest in joining an elcat webinar at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/88CSGW5

Access to elcat is via federated access management. If your institution would like access via IP authentication please contact the JISC Collections helpdesk [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>.

Further information

Members of JISC Collections can access elcat using federated access management at www.jisc-elcat.com<http://www.jisc-elcat.com/>. If you require any assistance or further information regarding elcat, please do contact our helpdesk [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>.

About our partners

DataSalon Ltd is based in Oxford, UK and specialises in providing flexible and powerful tools for data integration and analysis which are also extremely user-friendly and easy to implement. DataSalon has a strong client base in the publishing industry, including Oxford University Press, The American Medical Association, and The Royal Society of Chemistry. Our website is at: http://www.datasalon.com<http://www.datasalon.com/>.

EDItEUR is the international group coordinating development of the standards infrastructure for electronic commerce in the book, e-book and serials sectors. EDItEUR provides its membership with research, standards and guidance in a variety of areas including bibliographic and product information and the standards infrastructure for digital publishing. EDItEUR currently has 96 members and 14 of these are Charter Members. Details of the EDItEUR membership can be found at http://www.editeur.org/5/Members-List/All/.

Red Sage Consulting is owned by Sarah Durrant. Sarah has 23 years' experience in the information industry working for publishers, intermediaries, libraries and consortia, and research institutes. Through Red Sage, Sarah provides research, business development and training services to the research information sector. Sarah runs the popularLicensing and Negotiation Skills for Librarians course on behalf of UKSG. She is particularly interested in skills training designed to equip colleagues to adapt, innovate and thrive within the changing digital information landscape. To get in touch contact: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> or Tel +44 (0)7715 121910



Caren Milloy
Head of Projects
JISC Collections

E: [log in to unmask]
T: 02030066003

Twitter: carenmilloy


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