For most people on campuses, September means revising syllabi, enjoying football, or avoiding the person you broke up with last spring. For college librarians, it marks the beginning of "renewal season." It is time for the tedious work of placing orders and negotiating licenses for next year's journals. However, relief may be on the horizon. Several weeks ago, a coalition of librarians and publishers began to experiment with a radically simplified method of purchasing electronic materials. Libraries and publishers can now agree to use the "Shared E-Resource Understanding," or SERU, a five-page document that lists a few dozen stipulated points. Libraries and publishers that use the shared standards also pledge to deal with each other in good faith--preferably out of court--if any disputes arise. As the project's creators see it, the document is not a license or a contract. When libraries and publishers use the system, the intent is that the only legally enforceable contract will be a short, simple purchase order. But skeptics wonder whether the legal model makes sense, and argue that the legal specifics need further explication.