The Research On Licensing Electronic Journals In Libraries

Electronic journals are a major concern to libraries and librarians. In the electronic environment , licensing is increasingly a legal means to purchase and acquire electronic journals. Electronic journals cannot be owned by libraries as books or cassettes. Instead of buying physical ownership , libraries will in many cases buy access to web and other electronic journal. Then, provisions of use of the document must be agreed in a licensing agreement. Users'rights and obligations are defined and described by licensing agreements. They are not governed by copyright legislation to the same extent as is the use of traditional information formats. Of course,this doesn't mean that we don't need copyright laws.Nonetheless, even with the current move to licensing as a complementary means of regulating the use of electronic information , libraries and its users still need effective and well-balanced national copyright laws which recognize not only the rightholders'need for remuneration and recognition , but also the critical purposes of public information, education and research. As long as there exist copyright laws , terms and conditions of license agreements should not surpass the exceptions permitted under national copyright laws , should not exclude or negatively affect any statutory rights that may from time to tune be granted to libraries and their users by applicable copyright laws and international copyright treaties. Licensing still needs to be governed by applicable laws.The very beginning of this paper gives a brief introduction to the historical review of licensing and current status.It aims to explain the theoretical implication and practical value of licensing electronic journals in libraries.The first part discusses the concept, types and characteristics of licensing as well as the main provisions in a licensing contract.(also called licensing agreement).Then the subject and object of licensing are analysed and defined which pave the way for the licensing.The second part introduces licensing principles drafted by the Chair of CLMand approved by IFLA excutive board in March 2001,which function as guidelines to help librarians in negotiating and signing licensing agreements.Secondly,gives practical and stractegic considerations at librarians' angle before signing a licensing agreement.The third part analyses the applied situations of licensing electronic journals in libraries at home and abroad, points out current problems which exist in licensing , then suggests that some measures and counterparts should be taken to solve them. Finally, the case study of DTV, taking electronic journals as example, examine how DTV change itself to adapt to the development of licensing and what we should learn from them.The fourth part studies the governing methods which govern and manage licensing electronic journals in libraries such as legal method , administrative method , collective method , economic method , educational method and technological method.