ARL Encourages Members to Refrain from Signing Nondisclosure or Confidentiality Clauses

["B.G. Sloan" <bgsloan2@yahoo.com>]

News from the ARL:

"The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Board of Directors 
voted in support of a resolution introduced by its Scholarly 
Communication Steering Committee to strongly encourage ARL member 
libraries to refrain from signing agreements with publishers or 
vendors, either individually or through consortia, that include 
nondisclosure or confidentiality clauses."

<http://www.arl.org/news/pr/nondisclosure-5june09.shtml>

Bernie Sloan
Sora Associates
Bloomington, IN

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For immediate release:
June 5, 2009

For more information, contact:
Julia Blixrud
Association of Research Libraries
202-296-2296
jblix@arl.org

ARL Encourages Members to Refrain from Signing Nondisclosure or 
Confidentiality Clauses

Members Also Encouraged to Share Agreement Content

Washington DC--The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Board 
of Directors voted in support of a resolution introduced by its 
Scholarly Communication Steering Committee to strongly encourage 
ARL member libraries to refrain from signing agreements with 
publishers or vendors, either individually or through consortia, 
that include nondisclosure or confidentiality clauses. In 
addition, the Board encourages ARL members to share upon request 
from other libraries information contained in these agreements 
(save for trade secrets or proprietary technical details) for 
licensing content, licensing software or other tools, and for 
digitization contracts with third-party vendors.

The Board adopted this position at the ARL Membership Meeting in 
Houston, Texas, on May 22. The resolution was prepared in 
response to the concerns of membership that, as the amount of 
licensed content has increased, especially through packages of 
publications, nondisclosure or confidentiality clauses have had a 
negative impact on effective negotiations. The Scholarly 
Communication Steering Committee took the position that an open 
market will result in better licensing terms. In their 
discussions, the committee also noted the value of encouraging 
research projects and other efforts to gather information about 
the current market and licensing terms, such as an initiative 
being undertaken by Ted Bergstrom, University of California, 
Santa Barbara, Paul Courant, University of Michigan, and Preston 
McAfee, Cal Tech, to acquire information on bundled site-license 
contracts. A panel session on collaboration held later in the 
Membership Meeting included informal polls of members and the 
results indicated high levels of agreement and a positive 
commitment for making this information public when possible.

"Openness, transparency, and collaborative action have been the 
hallmarks of the library profession and the scholarly community," 
said Jim Neal, Columbia University, and Chair of the ARL 
Scholarly Communication Steering Committee. "It is incumbent upon 
us to share information about these major contracts we are 
signing on behalf of our library users."

"While research libraries may have in the past tolerated these 
clauses in order to achieve a lower cost," acknowledged Charles 
B. Lowry, ARL Executive Director, "the current economic crisis 
marks a fundamentally different circumstance in the relationship 
between libraries, publishers, and other vendors." ARL will be 
establishing a mechanism by which its members can share 
information with one another about their agreements.

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