Adopting digital materials such as eTextbooks and e-coursepacks is a potential strategy to address textbook affordability in the United States. However, university business relationships with bookstore vendors implicitly structure which instructional resources are available and in what manner. In this study, a document analysis was conducted on…

This is a study of the treatment of library patron privacy in licenses for electronic journals in academic libraries. We begin by distinguishing four facets of privacy and intellectual freedom based on the LIS and philosophical literature. Next, we perform a content analysis of 42 license agreements for electronic journals, focusing on terms for…

This study presents and analyzes the findings of a 2012 survey of member libraries belonging to the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) about publishers' large journal bundles and compares the results to earlier surveys. The data illuminate five research questions: market penetration, journal bundle construction, collection format shifts,…

This bibliographic essay examines the difficulties associated with the selection, licensing, acquisition, and management of e-books in academic libraries. The potential advantages of e-book technology are likely to be realized only to the extent that they advance the economic goals of e-book suppliers and are consistent with the legal framework…

According to the recent survey of Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP), one of the several top trends in publishing nowadays is the licensing liberalization among publishers. Licensing options now abound and there are various price points for libraries considering new collections. One such example is how SAGE offers…

Introduction: Our aim is to compare the advantages and problems of e-book acquisition identified in research literature to those experienced by two Swedish university libraries. Method: A literature review was used to identify the main issues related to acquisition of e-books by academic libraries. The data for comparison were collected through…

This paper analyzes changes to the definitions of "authorized users" contained in electronic resources licenses and embedded in access control technologies from the mid-1990s to the present. In analyzing changes to the license and technology-based definitions, it tracks shifts in major stakeholders' perceptions of authorized users and…

This article provides an overview of the basic characteristics of database, or eContent, license agreements, defines general licensing terms, maps the anatomy of an electronic resources subscription agreement, and discusses negotiating skills and techniques for library staff. (Contains a list of additional resources and a sample agreement.)