Elsevier's EJournal ILL Policy Changes

[Ann Okerson <ann.okerson@yale.edu>]

Thanks to John Tagler of Elsevier for passing along this welcome
news from Elsevier Science.    Your Liblicense-l Moderators

__________________________________________________

Forwarded message:
Date: Wed, 17 Jun 1998 19:21:46 -0400
From: John Tagler <j.tagler@elsevier.com>


Date:   June 17, 1998

Contact:  Karen Hunter
Senior Vice President
Tel: 212 633-3787
Fax:  212 633-3764
E-mail: k.hunter@elsevier.com


ELSEVIER SCIENCE ANNOUNCES CHANGE IN INTERLIBRARY LOAN POLICY FOR
ELECTRONIC FILES


AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS and NEW YORK, NY, USA

Elsevier Science has announced a more flexible interlibrary loan (ILL)
policy, allowing articles from licensed electronic holdings to be printed
and the print copy delivered via mail or fax to fulfill ILL requests.
This is a significant departure from the current policy followed by most
publishers, which permits copies to be made only from the print version of
a publication.  Electronic transmission of files from the electronic
original is not included in the new policy. 

The change responds to librarians' requests for a user-friendly policy, as
research libraries are in transition from print to electronic collections.
This new arrangement will allow speedier and more dependable access (i.e.,
retrieving and printing articles directly from electronic files rather
than obtaining print issues from library stacks and photocopying).  It
also provides a means for fulfilling ILL requests for titles that are not
held in print format.

Libraries licensing Elsevier Science journals through its two electronic
subscription services -- Elsevier Electronic Subscriptions and
ScienceDirect  -- will be allowed under this new policy to use these
electronic files as a source for ILL.  The license terms provide certain
limits regarding ILL transactions and provide for the collection of
sufficient data for all parties to evaluate the process.  Copies must be
requested by and sent to an academic or other non-commercial research
library; orders received from a for-profit company or directly from an
individual cannot be filled.  Also, the request must come from the same
country as the library delivering the copy, and no copies can be exported
without a special agreement on fees.  Elsevier Science will watch with
interest whether usage levels and borrowing practices are consistent with
what is anticipated in light of recent discussions with the library
community.

Karen Hunter, Senior Vice President, Elsevier Science, indicates, "A
paradigm shift is underway in how libraries collect and distribute
scientific research information.  We have had very productive negotiations
with librarians in the past three years as a rapidly growing number of
research libraries has subscribed to our electronic services.  Our new ILL
policy is in response to the needs expressed by librarians during
discussions on electronic licenses.  We feel it provides for greater
convenience and flexibility, and preserves the greatly-valued tenet of
interlibrary loan."

Elsevier Electronic Subscriptions, launched in 1995, offers a local
storage option for libraries, with complete electronic editions of up to
1,100 Elsevier Science journals delivered to the subscribing institution
and mounted, stored and delivered over the local network.  ScienceDirect
was launched in 1997 and provides libraries with Internet access to
remotely-stored journal full-text files for a broad spectrum of
scientific, technical and medical disciplines.  Both services offer
electronic subscriptions in addition to or in lieu of traditional print
subscriptions.

Elsevier Science is the world's leading publisher of scientific, technical
and medical publications and has offices in Amsterdam, Lausanne, London,
New York, Oxford, Rio de Janeiro, Shannon, Singapore and Tokyo.

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