Re: E-resource licensing and virtual reference

[Ruth Connell <connell@jcu.edu>]

My take would be that merely answering a question from the sources you
have is one thing while "pushing" a source along electronically would be
in violation of the license.

Ruth Connell
Cataloging and Systems Units Leader
John Carroll University
20700 North Park Blvd.
University Heights, Ohio  44118
216.397.1635
connell@jcu.edu

"Sloan, Bernie" wrote:

> I've given presentations at two conferences within the past week
> (International Coalition of Library Consortia, and Illinois Library
> Association) where a main topic of discussion involved the use of licensed
> e-resources to serve a user from another library, during a virtual
> reference session. Generally, the discussion involved collaborative
> virtual reference projects (i.e., where two or more libraries band
> together to provide virtual reference services to their collective group
> of users).
>
> Basically, the scenario is this: you are working the virtual reference
> desk, and a user connects from an institution other than your own. Can you
> use your licensed e-resources to help this user? For example, can you
> search a full text journal article database and e-mail articles to this
> user? Can you help the user by providing them with information from a
> licensed database?
>
> The consensus was that this should be no different than serving a walk-in
> patron who asks for help at the physical reference desk. With most vendor
> licenses, it is OK for a walk-in user to make use of licensed e-resources.
> But when it comes to providing virtual service (e.g., via a virtual
> reference service) the licensing terms and conditions are less clear.
>
> What do you all think? I am especially interested to hear what e-resource
> vendors think about this.
>
> Bernie Sloan
> Senior Library Information Systems Consultant
> University of Illinois Office for Planning and Budgeting
> 338 Henry Administration Building
> 506 S. Wright Street
> Urbana, IL  61801
> Phone: (217) 333-4895
> Fax:   (217) 265-0454
> E-mail: bernies@uillinois.edu