Re: licenses in non-English languages?

[kmetzner@harcourt.com]

Responding to the question posed by Ann Okerson, Academic Press provides
translations of its licenses into major languages on request. There are
two different situations. In one the translation is not the "official"
legal document and is meant only to help in understanding. In the other
case the translation is the legal document. In the latter case, it is
usually more than a translation, requiring recasting of the agreement in
the legal terms and context of the country involved. This latter case also
requires a great deal more work and coordination between the publisher's
lawyers in both countries, as well a translation (for understanding only)
back into English. Some portions of AP's web sites are also available in
multiple languages. 

Ken Metzner
VP Harcourt Worldwide STM Group
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Ann Okerson <ann.okerson@yale.edu>         
To:     liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu               

This message is aimed primarily at publishers and vendors of electronic
information, and of course librarians are welcome to chime in.  Today a
colleague forwarded to me a message from a French librarians' listserve,
in which the topic of license translation was raised.  These librarians
stated that most/nearly all licenses for their information products (many
of which are international journals and databases) come to them in
English, either from the publisher or as a click license on the web.

These librarians wonder if such licenses are available in French.  Good
question, and not only for that language.  I've heard it said by many
librarians from non-Anglo countries that licenses are presented to them in
English and that it is not easy to cope with this, for a number of
reasons.  This seems a real disservice to the global library and user
community, doesn' it?

So, my question to the information provider community is:  which of you
have made your licenses available in foreign languages as well as English,
and in what languages have you done so?  Of course, I could ask which
non-English language provider has also made their license available in
English.  And liblicense-l would surely like to hear from librarians for
whom English-only is a problem.  Speak up.

Sincerely, Ann Okerson
liblicense-l moderator
ann.okerson@yale.edu