Re: Negotiating with the Library of Congress

[Tom Williams <twilliam@bbl.usouthal.edu>]

Rick, what you describe has been tried (sometimes successfully) by
numerous intellectual property "owners."  The key is to carefully read the
license guidelines.  If this component is there DO NOT sign.  Similarly,
as I found out the hard way, if you sign off on a license/contract that in
any way restricts "Fair Use," then that contract supecedes the fair use
guidelines and you are stuck with whatever you signed off on.  A point
that I keep belaboring and which our associations seems unwilling to face
as squarely as we might wish, is that we (all libraries) need to develop
guidelines so that individual libraries will have a template to use when
negotiating.  Right now the publishers and others are running rampant with
whatever "rules" they can get away with.  MLA, ALA, SLA, and the rest need
to work together to establish guidelines that are fair to both libraries
and publishers.  Libraries with substantial collections budgets have a
certain amount of clout with the publishers and others.  That "clout" will
be exponentially increased if we establish guidelines that most libraries
choose to adhere to.  If the vendors do not agree to our guidelines to our
satisfaction, then NO DEAL.  Policies such as pushing off all liability
for improper use onto the libraries, restricting fair use, etc., should be
deal breakers.  Individually, we have had success in dealing with some
publishers and vendors by not signing off on licenses which we find too
restrictive or in any other way unacceptable.  However, this will not work
unless you are committed to cancelling or not ordering the product if an
agreement is not reached.  I don't recall one deal that was cancelled due
to not working through the issues.  They tend to want to make the sale and
are usually willing to negotiate.  Individual libraries may have some
clout, but collectively we would be a powerhouse.

-- 
Thomas L. Williams, AHIP
Director, Biomedical Libraries and
 Media Production Services
University of South Alabama
College of Medicine
Mobile, Al 36688-0002
tel. (251)460-6885
fax. (251)460-7638
twilliam@bbl.usouthal.edu

On Sat, 25 May 2002, Rick Anderson wrote:

> 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
> rickand@unr.edu