The Survey of Library Database Licensing Practices (PDF)

This international report focuses particularly on the database licensing practices of research libraries with data presented separately for legal, corporate, higher education and other libraries. The study presents up to date data on database spending broken out by type of information vehicle (eBook, Journals Database, Other Periodicals Database, Directory, etc.) and by subject matter (i.e. legal, medical, business, etc.). The report looks closely at how libraries organize their database procurement and processing bureaucracy, pinpointing the number of positions devoted to digital information, and staff time spent on tasks such as procurement and invoice processing. The report is particularly rich in data about negotiations with vendors, presenting data separately for efforts to negotiate various issues such as interlibrary loan provisions, access to archives in the event of cancellation, timing of payments, price increases, provisions for credits in the event of downtime, extent of hard copy printouts allowed, and much more. Among other issues covered: database renewal intentions, testing of new databases, view of price increases, use of open access resources, spending on "by the slice" electronic info in lieu of subscriptions, relations with consortia, the impact of mobile computing on electronic info use in the library, use of legal help in contracts, data on legal disputes with publishers and trends in overall database use.