SOLINET and Lexis-Nexis

[Rick Anderson <rick_anderson@uncg.edu>]

We're in the process of subscribing to Academic UNIVERSE, a Lexis-Nexis
product, through SOLINET, our regional consortium.  As the one charged
with vetting license agreements here at UNCG, I have been somewhat taken
aback by the fact that SOLINET and Lexis-Nexis have separate sets of
license terms to which we must agree.  Most curiously of all, SOLINET's
version refers to the Lexis-Nexis version as "the entire agreement."  
(Legally speaking, if SOLINET and Lexis-Nexis both agree that the
Lexis-Nexis version is the entire agreement, doesn't that make the rest of
SOLINET's agreement irrelevant?)

Perhaps not surprisingly, the two sets of terms do not agree perfectly; to
make things even more complicated, the Lexis-Nexis document includes a
separate paragraph of specific terms for each of the 56 publishers whose
material is provided by Academic UNIVERSE.  Some of the publisher-specific
terms are fine, but others are not acceptable.  So what I've got here is a
huge, sprawling and only intermittently appropriate set of terms from the
vendor which is somehow wedded to separate set of terms from the
consortium.  I've been in touch with my SOLINET rep, but while I wait for
a response I'd be very interested to know how others have dealt with this.  
I'm sure I'm not the only one in this situation...

----------------------
Rick Anderson
Head Acquisitions Librarian
Jackson Library
UNC Greensboro
1000 Spring Garden St.
Greensboro, NC 27402-6175
PH (336) 334-5281
FX (336) 334-5399
rick_anderson@uncg.edu
http://www.uncg.edu/~r_anders

"A good newspaper is never quite good
enough, but a lousy newspaper is a joy
forever."
                  -- Garrison Keillor