Written by David Tebbutt in February 2004

Library subscriptions used to be easy - fill in a subs form, wait for the journal to arrive, staple a circulation list to the cover and send it on its journey round the organisation.

In this fast-moving, instant-everything, me-me, now-now world, this is no longer good enough. Users want information at the touch of a button or the click of a mouse.

Nothing in your training prepared you for this. You are suddenly expected to negotiate with information providers and get the best possible deal for the widest-possible electronic access with the lightest possible penalties for infringement of the licence terms.

In the paper world, life is straightforward: no-one would be mad enough to try and photocopy and distribute entire journals but, in the academic world, a variety of copying rights are enshrined in law. And, unless stolen, paper documents can be archived for future reference. Such rights cannot be taken for granted in the electronic world, they have to be negotiated.

The dreaded licence governs your every action. And each clause in each licence has to be fought over until each side thinks it has the best possible arrangement. Every library's user community and every publisher is different and every difference is an opportunity for one side or the other to adjust the terms. You'll find a licence far less intimidating if you remember that it is merely an invitation to negotiate.

Many librarians, unaccustomed to negotiation, simply moan and groan but sign the licence anyway. Negotiation skills are just not part of their make-up. Licences, which are really contracts, can deprive you of rights you take for granted under your national copyright act. It's no good trying to hand responsibility to the buying department because it does not, and cannot, understand the access and usage issues which the librarian understands so well.

A team effort might work, in which the librarian, the buyer, the legal department and IT are all involved. But another issue raises its head - time. How many information providers do you have to deal with? With paper subs, you just let the renewal process happen. With electronic licences, you have to renegotiate every one, two or three years. Clearly, it gets easier, but the provider will have changed its offerings, your user community profile will have changed. You could end up negotiating renewals from now to Kingdom come.

The provider, usually a public company, wants revenue and profits to increase ad infinitum in order to satisfy its shareholders. Ideally, it would like to abandon print in order to slash its costs but, at the moment, it is using non-cancellation clauses in print subscriptions to protect its revenues. Before it can switch to total electronic access, it has to persuade librarians that the value of its 24 x 365 information service is well in excess of current subscription levels.

The library, with its inevitable budget problems, wants to maximise access and user freedoms at the lowest possible cost. Users themselves want uncomplicated high speed access regardless of their physical location and the ability to print or extract information in accordance with the accepted 'fair use' provisions associated with paper publishing. Each side needs the other, but one needs to protect revenues as much as the other needs to restrict expenditure. Licence negotiation is the only place where agreement can be reached.

The library needs to look ahead and ask: "what happens when the licence expires or is terminated?"; "What access provisions remain for the material licenced in the event of termination?"; "What happens if the information provider goes out of business? Will archive tapes be kept in escrow, or be made publicly available?"

Make sure when planning to negotiate that you take all these issues, and the more obvious ones, into account. Be utterly clear about exactly what rights are granted during the licence period and after it terminates.

If you don't like the sound of this, consider joining a consortium or hiring an outside negotiator to do the work for you. A consortium can be a natural grouping, such as 'higher education' or a geographic grouping of libraries which centralises various administrative resources and provides strength in numbers when dealing with providers. A negotiator would need to be truly independent and not take a rake-off from the publisher.

Whether you go it alone, join a consortium or recruit a negotiator, your duty is to maximise access to relevant publications at the lowest cost. But, don't forget, the providers have to stay in business too.