Re: licenses in non-English languages?

[Mei-Yuh Shih <mei@mail.stic.gov.tw>]

Following up Ann Okerson's mail of the translation of electronic
resources, I like to say something from librarian's position.  We CONCERT
(CONsortium on Core Electronic Resources in Taiwan) always try our best to
ask for the Chinese translation of the license.  Usually they are not the
'official legal document'.  For our member institutes' reference, we ask
the information providers to highlight the important terms in Chinese.  
Most of the information providers do cope with our needs on same.  As for
the signing of the Agreement, we still do so in the English version.

Mei-yuh Shih
Coordinator
CONsortium on Core Electronic Resources in Taiwan
email: mei@mail.stic.gov.tw

______________

Ann Okerson wrote:

> 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