On 8 March 2011 19:20, phoebe ayers <[email protected]> wrote: > Most (all?) university libraries sign contracts with database/journal > vendors restricting access to only faculty/staff/students at the > university. The library pays according to how many people that is. > Giving access to others is generally a violation of that contract, and > could variously: a) cause the library to lose access to the resource > altogether, if the publisher determines that many 'unauthorized' > people are gaining access or a great deal is being downloaded; b) > cause the student to be sanctioned by the university for mis-using > their log-in ID. So, uh, yeah, let's not do outreach asking for this.
I was about to reply and say much the same thing! (with the same hat on...) A sample contract, for OUP journals: http://www.oxfordjournals.org/help/instsitelicence.pdf It's a pretty standard limitation: "... affiliated with the Licensee as a current student, faculty, library patron, employee, ... or physically present on the Licensee's premises." Note the last caveat - many institutions will allow use of some otherwise-restricted electronic resources to non-students when physically on site. In these cases, accessibility is usually comparable to that of reading room access - the conditions whereby they'll let you come in and use a desk. Some institutions have an entirely open-door policy, some just ask to fill in a form, some charge a relatively nominal fee, some want evidence of a reason to be there, etc. Getting people in here is one way the WMF (or local chapters) could play a part - the financial side of things fits well with the microgrants programs some chapters have run to pay for books, etc, in the past, and whilst I don't believe we currently sign things to say people are doing valid research, there's no reason we couldn't start doing so. -- - Andrew Gray [email protected] _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
