Additional Authorised User Licensing Initiative
Responding to the changing needs of customers and new market
opportunities.
The nature of higher education is changing. The demands that universities
embrace new and diverse activities, has led to the emergence of new user
groups who are not covered by existing licensing models.
The JISC Model Licences1 provide a robust
framework, giving flexibility to institutions whilst protecting the
intellectual property of publishers2. To
ensure that the Model Licences continue to meet the diverse needs of
universities, JISC Collections facilitated three licensing workshops with
librarians and publishers in London and Edinburgh in late 2006.
These workshops reviewed the new challenges facing institutions and
delegates made recommendations to JISC Collections for the future
development of the Model Licences. For a full review of the workshops
please see:
JISC Licensing Workshops.
The licensing workshops identified three priorities for extending access to
other user groups:
-
Widening the definition of Authorised User
The workshops recommended that JISC Collections should negotiate with the
publishers to amend the current definition of Authorised User, to include
the following:
-
Teachers of a university’s students, who are not employed by the
university. For example, teachers employed by a further education
institute who teach students from a university.
-
Retired members of staff of a subscribing university. These retired staff
often wish to have remote access so that they can continue private, non
commercial research.
-
Additional Authorised User licences for educational use
These licences will enable universities, for an additional fee, to
provide access to defined user groups at Partner Organisations for
educational purposes only. The Partner Organisation may be within the UK
or overseas.
-
Additional Authorised User licences for commercial use
These licences will enable universities, for an additional fee, to
provide access to defined users in small and medium sized enterprises
(SMEs) funded by or affiliated to a university for the purposes of
commercial research and development.
Why should a publisher agree to the new definition of Authorised
User?
Universities are under pressure to provide access to retired people and
teachers of students. Library customers will greatly appreciate the help of
publishers on this point. The numbers of additional users as a result of
this amended definition will be small, and the these users will have to
agree to and abide by the standard university rules and regulations
regarding access to online resources
Why should a publisher or content provider agree to the Additional
Authorised User Licences?
-
To enable their company to access new markets and customers from partner
organisations that would not otherwise license content.
-
To agree to a standard framework that will ease the administration of an
increasingly common necessity for universities.
-
Publishers will agree in principle to the Additional Authorised User
Licences, but in each case can either accept or reject the proposed
additional user group.
-
Publishers will set the fees for the Additional Authorised User Licences.
-
The Authorised User Licences are for a fixed period, so publishers will
have the opportunity to consider them again at renewal.
1JISC Model Licences refers to the JISC Model Licence for
datasets, the JISC Model Licence for e-books and the NESLi2 Model Licence
2Publisher in this context means all publishers of digital
content and databases, digital content aggregators and other licensors of
digital content