RE: Alumni and Friends of the Library Donors

["Rick Lugg" <rick@r2consulting.org>]

Until December of last year, I represented a product called Alumni
Information Portal, conceived and designed by the late, lamented Northern
Light Technology. This portal offered access to 7,200 titles (Gale and
ProQuest content) to an unlimited number of alumni for a flat annual rate
of $33,000. Northern Light, of course, was acquired by divine, so...no
more Alumni Portal.

During the year or so that this product was offered to libraries, we saw a
great deal of interest. The objection most often encountered was that the
resources offered didn't match the full array of library resources that
alumni were accustomed to.  An extension of existing licenses to the
so-called "penumbral" communities makes good sense--though it's likely to
be more expensive than $33K, at leas for large institutions. There is
clearly a significant and underserved market here.

Because such services offer additional benefit to alumni, we often found
that not only the library, but the alumni association and university
development groups had interest, and were sometimes willing to fund part
of the license in expectation of increasing donations.

Rick Lugg
R2 Consulting
63 Woodwell's Garrison
Contoocook, NH 03229

e:   rick@r2consulting.org
v:   603-746-5991
f:   603-746-6052
w:  www.ebookmap.net

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2003 6:57 PM
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: Alumni and Friends of the Library Donors

Dear Colleagues,

I have seen several threads on this list about providing in library access
to databases for walk-in users.  I am wondering if anyone has negotiated a
license which allows remote access to databases for paid members of an
alumni association or friends group.  I have a couple of questions:

1) Has anyone negotiated a license which allows this kind of access?
2) What kind of increase in costs did this negotiation incur?
3) What kind of authentication did you use to provide access to this
   population?

Thanks for any information you can give.

Mary H. Munroe
mmunroe@niu.edu