Re: A question of licences and Alumni members

[Michele Newberry <fclmin@nersp.nerdc.ufl.edu>]

Coming from a public university system in a state where the funding
sources tend to believe that it really is all free on the Internet, I know
that we'd never be funded to support access for alumni.  There's barely
enough support for the faculty and students as it is.

Regarding the authentication issue... that too would never be supported by
the registrars offices at our universities.  This would require keeping
all previously registered students in their files in perpetuity and we'd
have to keep them in our circulation system patron files.  That would mean
that they also had access in perpetuity to all other library services such
as checking out books and ILL services.  This is not something that is
offered carte blanche to everyone.  What is an alumnus?  Someone who
actually graduated in good standing or anyone who ever took a single class
at the university?  This impracticality for public institutions would be
enough reason if funding weren't the major impediment.

  -- Michele Newberry
      FCLA

_______

John Cox wrote:

> Ann Okerson raises some interesting issues.  The following comments can
> only reflect my personal view, the context of which is to license all uses
> the licensee institution needs in order to undertake its teaching and
> research properly while keeping the paperwork to a minimum:
>
> 1.  It does not make sense to go for a separate license.  Access to alumni
> is acceptable to many publishers provided that it is restricted to access
> made on terminals in the library itself or on courses/events run by the
> institution.  All such use is restricted to personal study and research.
>
> 2.  If the course is run by the institution, individuals are covered by
> the usual license definition of Authorised Users including "faculty, staff
> and students"; they qualify as students.  But the course must be run by
> the institution, not by a separate organisation like an alumni association
> for which the licensee institution is not responsible.
>
> I have a more general comment.  Where is this pressing demand for alumnus
> access coming from?  In my experience and that of my friends, we all move
> on quickly from an important three or four year experience to the rest of
> our lives.  My fellow alumni do get together for reunions etc, but these
> are mainly social.  University was a milestone in our lives, but only
> that.  Of those who have gone into academic life, they will use the
> libraries available to them at their present universities.  The rest of us
> move into other modes of life.  Is this demand merely a "nice to do"
> thought by librarians?  Show publishers the real demand, and we will
> respond.
>
> But it sounds like tilting at windmills!
>
> John Cox
> John.E.Cox@btinternet.com
> www.licensingmodels.com
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ann Okerson <ann.okerson@yale.edu>
> To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu <liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu>
> Date: 16 July 2000 19:38
> Subject: Re: A question of licences and Alumni members
>
> >John and others:  I understand the traditional arguments against including
> >alumni in licenses.  And I have two real-life questions:
> >
> >1.  Under what conditions would electronic information providers include
> >alumni access to a given information resources?  Under a different license
> >altogether? Under the same license but more money? With certain
> >limitations?
> >
> >2.  What if one's alumni association creates short continuing education
> >courses for those same alumni, at their request (they want to keep in
> >touch with former professors and learn from them, etc.).
> >
> >Assume here that the courses are offered for free or at price that aims
> >to recover costs (not make money), and the individuals in the courses
> >can be identified and access given to enrollees only, with the rest of
> >alumni excluded.
> >
> >Would such a scenario be acceptable?  Would it require a whole separate
> >license negotiation (which, for, say, a 4 or 6-week course with a limited
> >enrollment of, say, 50 or fewer wouldn't likely be cost effective)? Would
> >inclusion of such alumni be acceptable under fairly common license
> >language that permits faculty, staff, and student access wherever they may
> >be located?  I would appreciate a discussion of such limited
> >alumni-as-student coverage and its relationship to all-alumni-all-the-time
> >kinds of licenses.
> >
> >Thank you, Ann Okerson
> >Yale University Library