Negotiating with the Library of Congress

["Rick Anderson" <rickand@unr.edu>]

I'm in the middle of a rather frustrating license negotiation with the
Library of Congress.  We want to purchase a copy of the new Classification
Web product, and I find the license to be unusually restrictive and
inappropriate on several points (institutional assumption of all
responsibility for patron behavior, utter lack of any warranty, etc.).
This surprises and disappoints me, since this is, you know, the Library of
Congress I'm dealing with, but what's even more surprising and
disappointing is LC's stated unwillingness to alter the license terms in
any way ("In keeping with a policy to maintain a standard customer
license," as if standard licenses were some kind of absolute good).

Has anyone had more success than I in negotiating with LC?  And if not,
should we consider giving that institution some kind of public award for
being less reasonable than most commercial publishers in its licensing
policies?

-------------
Rick Anderson
Director of Resource Acquisition
The University Libraries
University of Nevada, Reno      "That wasn't a Freudian slip;
1664 No. Virginia St.              it was a Jungian slip."
Reno, NV  89557                       -- Dr. Katz
PH  (775) 784-6500 x273
FX  (775) 784-1328
rickand@unr.edu