RE: Who is the subscriber

["Erwin, Patricia J." <erwin.patricia@mayo.edu>]

This problem has come up several times, most recently in our negotiations
with Wiley. Much to their credit, the question was asked whether or not we
wished to include departmental subscriptions.

After considerable discussion we have made the policy (which we revisit
periodically) that if the LIBRARY does not control the subscription, it is
not included.  While it would expand the number of titles available to the
Foundation as a whole, we can not control the subscription.  It was
decided to treat it as we do paper subscriptions in departmental libraries
-- we are aware of them; we will direct people to the person in charge of
that collection if appropriate; but they are not included in our online
catalog, or other public documents.  Individual libraries within our
system are included, and they can choose to drop a subscription.  
Ultimately this could affect our licenses, but it is far more manageable
that tracking the subscriptions of 500+ departmental collections.

Patricia Erwin
erwin.patricia@mayo.edu
Mayo Medical Library
Rochester MN 55905
Phone: 507-284-4952
FAX: 507-284-2215

-----Original Message-----
From: hazel woodward [mailto:H.Woodward@cranfield.ac.uk]
Sent: Thursday, June 22, 2000 3:27 PM
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: Re: Who is the subscriber


I'm glad that David has raised this issue on the list. We have had exactly
the same problem at Cranfield Univesity.  The Library signed the licence
and shortly afterwards we were informed by the publisher that one of our
Schools had cancelled a subscription (which we had no idea exisited).  In
this particular instance we were able to persuade the School *not* to
cancel - but after discussions with the publisher it was clear that, had
they gone ahead with the cancellation, the library would have had to take
responsibility for the subscription. I'm not sure what can be done with
existing licences - but clearly it is something that needs to be guarded
against in future negotiations with publishers. We have certainly
discussed the issue within the (UK) NESLI Steering Committee and will
monitor future NESLI licences.

Dr Hazel Woodward, University Librarian and
Director of Cranfield University Press,
Cranfield University, Cranfield, 
Bedfordshire MK43 0AL.
Email: h.woodward@cranfield.ac.uk
Tel: +44(0)1234 754446
Fax: +44(0)1234 752391

On Wed, 21 Jun 2000 18:17:11 EDT "David S. Crawford" 
<Crawford@Library.McGill.Ca> wrote:

> I would be interested in views from the list concerning the practice of
> some publishers (we are currently talking to Elsevier) who look at all
> subscriptions sent to an institution and base licenses on ALL these
> titles.  As a University library system we can, with difficulty and our
> fingers crossed, guarantee not to cancel the print titles which WE
> subscribe to but have no way to do the same for titles bought by
> "independent" departmental, research institute or hospital libraries. They
> can, and do, cancel titles as grants end or research projects finish.
> 
> How are others dealing with this?  
> 
> DAVID CRAWFORD
> 
> David S. Crawford
> Health Sciences Librarian and
> Serials Co-ordinator
> McGill University
> Montreal,  CANADA