About this Site

LIBLICENSE is a project initiated in 1997 by Ann Shumelda Okerson, at that time Associate University Librarian at Yale University. It benefited from funding from the Commission on Preservation and Access, the Council on Library Resources (both since merged into the Council on Library and Information Resources), and the Digital Library Federation. The project created unprecedented resources for professionals seeking to understand the then-emerging world of licensed scholarly resources for libraries.  The licensing material has been updated, especially with links to many library, NGO, and vendor resources. At the same time, Liblicense-l began discussion of licensing and related issues. The discussions there have been lively and interesting, have ongoing value, and continue today, with nearly 17,000 messages in the archive.

Since November 2011, the LIBLICENSE project has been hosted at the Center for Research Libraries and looks forward to the benefits of this collaboration.

The materials on this Web site are not intended as legal advice and do not include all information necessary to evaluate any actual business transaction or legal dispute. Specific legal steps should only be taken after consultation with a qualified attorney. All librarians should make sure that wherever appropriate, legal staff review licensing agreements to be certain that they serve the best interests of the library.

ANN OKERSON combines experience in academic library management, the commercial sector, and as senior/founding program officer for Scholarly Communication at the Association of Research Libraries in Washington, D.C. In 1996, she joined Yale as Associate University Librarian. In that capacity, she organized and served for fifteen years as Director of the Northeast Research Libraries consortium (NERL), now a group of 28 large and over 80 smaller libraries negotiating for electronic information resources and engaging occasionally in other cooperative activities. She is also one of the founding spirits of ICOLC, the International Coalition of Library Consortia.

With special funding, she and her staff created LIBLICENSE (1997+), an online educational resource about library licensing of electronic content. Its extensive annotations and links are complemented by an international discussion group of over 3,800 librarians, publishers, attorneys, and others in the information chain. She has done training of librarians around the world, both in forming consortia and in licensing. In October 2011, she took up a position as Special Advisor on E-Resource Strategies for the Center for Research Libraries (Chicago). She is active in IFLA, most recently as member of the Governing Board and Chair of the Professional Committee.

DLIB magazine feature on LIBLICENSE (September 1999)

Last updated: May 1, 2012

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