Consortial E-Resource Licensing: Current Trends and Issues

ABSTRACT

As libraries move from a printed to a digital ecosystem for the content that they license, they have increasingly depended on consortia to obtain the best pricing and contract terms. Consortial e-Resource licensing offers a variety of benefits and drawbacks which must be considered. Some of the key issues which must be addressed include whose license should provide the starting basis for a contract, shifting contract pricing away from a print-based model, avoiding overlap between competing consortia, the growing pressure to license digital products which are outside of traditional library purchasing, as well as other terms and conditions which must be addressed.

KEYWORDS:

• consortia
• e-Resource licensing
• contracts