RE: Alumni Access to Electronic Resources

[Doug Kariel <dougk@athabascau.ca>]

Hi everyone,

We were able to obtain acces to some Proquest databases specifically for
alumni.  They are ones that we already subscribe to and we have paid an
extra fee for alumni access.  There are fairly simple ways of limiting the
alumni to these databases and ensuring that they don't access other
databases from the provider that the library has access to.

I think Proquest is the only provider that will do this.  In our case, the
alumni office is paying the bill rather than the library.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Doug Kariel
Head, Technical Services and Systems
Athabasca University Library
Athabasca, AB.  T9S 3A3
phone: 780-675-6261   
e-mail: dougk@athabascau.ca

> I'm a Berkeley alumnus, and I would love having access to all the
> University of California online resources.
>
> But if the UC (and Stanford) alumni had access to the databases they
> used as students at educational rates, what professional in the state of
> California would pay commercial rates for anything? Only those from the
> less well provided for schools.
>
> For many indexing services in particular, the much higher differential
> rates paid by for-profit clients is a critical financial factor.
>
> I think it unreasonable of a university to ask for this, and in
> negotiating contracts I never did. I think it foolhardy of a publisher
> to provide this, unless they expected very little non-educational
> use--and then why would any alumni want it to start with?
>
> In general, such a move would further priviledge the alumni of the
> richer schools, and further marginalize the information access for the
> alumni of the lesser ones. Trying to add this access is a move away from
> the principles of OA.
>
> This does not apply to state-wide or nation-wide access. Though
> expensive to purchase especially from the commercial publishers, it does
> provide OA for a limited area.
>
> Dr. David Goodman
> Associate Professor
> Palmer School of Library and Information Science
> Long Island University
> dgoodman@liu.edu
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu on behalf of Jake Carlson
> Sent: Wed 6/8/2005 7:08 PM
> To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
> Subject: Alumni Access to Electronic Resources
>
> Hello,
>
> Is anyone out there providing access to library databases or other
> electronic resources to alumni?  I checked the Lib-license archives and
> found a threads on this subject from 2000 and 2001, but I'd be
> interested in hearing about recent experiences.
>
> I'm particularly interested in knowing what the sticking points in
> negotiating a license agreement to accommodate access for alumni were
> and how (if?) they were resolved.  I'd also be interested in hearing
> about how the fees were structured.  For example, was the fee based on
> the total number of alumni from your institution, on a percentage of the
> total number (figuring that not all alumni will use the database), on
> actual use, or some other means?
>
> Thanks in advance for sharing your experience.
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> Jake Carlson
> Research Services Librarian/Coordinator of Electronic Resources
> Bertrand Library
> Bucknell University
> AIM:  JakeCarlsonISR