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Back to the Future: the SERU Approach

ICOLC Montreal, April, 2007

Chris Martire, PALINET

NISO SERU Working Group

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What SERU Is

Mutual understanding Libraries and publishers forego a license

agreement and rely on a Shared E-Resources Understanding (SERU)

Reduces processing costs Removes barriers for smaller publishers

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What SERU Is Not

Standard license agreementLicense agreements are contracts that

require terms unique to each locale precluding a streamlined process. Not intended to replace or eliminate all license

agreements. Not a license and is not customizable.

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Exploratory Conversations

Discussion Forums held at Charleston – Fall 2005 ALA Midwinter 2006 ERL 1st conference, March 2006 ALA Summer, June 2006

Result Growing list of interested librarians and

publishers

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What We Learned

Librarians Often had a backlog of licenses Some noted that a few publishers didn’t have

license agreements

Publishers Most believe librarians needed licenses Face increased costs to handle paperwork

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Developmental Process

Engaging Organizational SupportLegal consultationRepresentative group met in DC, Oct 2006Created preliminary draftNISO adopted Working Group Dec 2006ALA Midwinter meetings with stakeholdersSERU Draft – Issued Mar 2007

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Supporting Organizations

Librarians ARL - Association of Research Libraries SPARC – Scholarly Publishing & Academic

Resources Coalition

Publishers ALPSP – Association of Learned and

Professional Society Publishers SSP – Society for Scholarly Publishing

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Working Group Members

Ivy Anderson - California Digital Library Linda Beebe - American Psychological Association Fiona Bennett - Oxford University Press Clinton Chamberlain - Trinity University Deborah Gerhardt - University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Libraries Karla Hahn - Association of Research Libraries (Co-Chair) Heather Joseph - Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition Selden Lamoureux - University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Libraries Judy Luther - Informed Strategies (Co-Chair) Christine Martire - PALINET Robert Oakley - Georgetown University Law Center Oliver Pesch - EBSCO Information Services Zachary Rolnik - Now Publishers, Inc. Kimberly Steinle - Duke University Press

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Topics in Shared Understanding

Subscriptions and subscribersAppropriate and inappropriate useConfidentiality and privacyOnline performance and serviceArchival access and perpetual rights

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Without a License Agreement

Omit Contract Terms Jurisdiction Warranties Liabilities Force majeure Assignment Severability

Purchase Order Terms What content For what price For what period How many (for whom)

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How It Works

Forego license and rely on shared understanding

Purchase Order is acquisitions vehicleOrders placed through vendors such as

serials agents or consortiaSERU posted on NISO websiteNISO Registry for publishers & libraries

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Feedback so far….

“I’d like to start by saying how much I appreciate and applaud this innovative approach, and the very well-written and clear document. This is a welcome and significant effort to make needed change.”

Suggestions for clarification on: archiving and perpetual access; inappropriate use; applicability for databases

Discussion on Liblicense – legal questions, implied contract, click-throughs, etc.

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Can it work for Consortia?

Group Purchase – Yes, extend SERU to individual members of the group

Central purchase – Maybe, if purchase documents can refer to individual Subscribers

Big Deal – Probably not, given multi-year and commitment levels as well as nature of publishers involved in Big Deals.

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Next Steps

Working Group meeting next week to review feedback

Continue to discuss SERU at various conferences and meetings

www.Niso.org/committees/Seru