NELLCO Full Member

Karen Quinn, Law Library Director and NELLCO President

 

To Receive Slice In Your Inbox Each Month 

 

LIPA Legal Information Preservation Alliance

MALLCO Mid-America Law Library Consortium

ACL Association for Consortium Leadership

Director's Corner

By Tracy Thompson-Przylucki

  

If you're a regular reader, you will have seen Loislaw listed as one of our 'upcoming trials' in the last few issues of the Slice. We will not be moving forward with a Loislaw trial at this time, and I want to share the background for those of you who have been waiting for a NELLCO offer.

 

Before we establish a trial of any resource, we want to be sure that we won't run into any obstacles during the license negotiation phase. We don't need a final agreement prior to trial, but we want to make sure there aren't going to be any brick walls. That's where we stalled with Loislaw. 

 

I met with Jeff Caulkins, Account Manager at Wolters Kluwer Law and Business, in Jan. of this year. We planned to offer Loislaw  (and perhaps other CCH content) through NELLCO, as they were discontinuing the 'free to law students' program. I received the first license agreement, which presented several challenges, back in Feb.

 

First, the choice of law/venue clause was problematic for us. Many NELLCO members are state institutions or receive state funding and are therefore barred from signing agreements subjecting them to foreign law/venue. NELLCO's approach is twofold. If the information provider can modify the language to be consistent with the NELLCO standard language for this clause, we're golden. If not, we will ask that the license remain silent on choice of law/venue. We are typically able to resolve this, and Wolters Kluwer was amenable to a resolution on this issue.

 

Second, the Loislaw agreement incorporated by reference the terms and conditions on the provider's website, which established unenforceable geographic limitations on the use of the content (i.e. Loislaw could not be accessed by authorized users from within country a, b, c). As written, the agreement would make the subscribing library responsible for insuring that access was not gained by their users from within these countries. As emerging democracies, it seemed quite possible that bona fide authorized users (faculty, law students, etc.) could in fact be working in these jurisdictions and need access to this content. And in any event, the library would not be able to patrol that usage if a user has valid proxy, vpn, or other remote access. 

 

After I raised these issues Jeff told me that a new agreement was forthcoming. I received that agreement in Sept. and it was even more problematic than the original. I'll highlight just a few of my concerns.

 

First, the agreement applied to users, rather than to subscribers. The language of the agreement would make authorized users parties to (and thereby liable for) the terms and conditions. It may even have been a click-through license, but we didn't get far enough for me to confirm that. Second, like the first license, this one also incorporated by reference additional terms and conditions not set forth in the license. Third, it still retained the unacceptable choice of law/venue language of the original agreement. Fourth, it contained this clause:

 

CCH may revise this Agreement at any time without notice by updating this posting.  By using this Online Service you agree to be bound by any such revisions and should therefore periodically visit this Online Service and page to determine the then current terms and conditions of use to which you are bound.

 

This clause has several problems. CCH may change the terms without notice. Any subsequent use of the resource indicates acceptance of the revised terms.

 

Another clause, perhaps the most egregious, contained terms that restricted users' speech about CCH and its products or services.

 

Needless to say, we are at an impaase and will not be licensing this content through NELLCO at any time in the foreseeable future. If you negotiate directly with the provider, please READ THIS (and EVERY) LICENSE CAREFULLY!

 

Content, Collaboration, Curation and Innovation 

  

NELLCO is very excited to host this inaugural, annual two-day event at the Albany Law School in Albany, NY on March 12-13, 2012. 

   

The goal of the event is twofold. Day one, Content and Collaboration, will bring Information Providers and Law Librarians together for opportunities to share their expertise and learn from one another in a series of classroom sessions. Participating Information Providers will select from Product Support Sessions, Thought Leadership Sessions, or may even opt to conduct Focus Groups at the event. There will also be mini NELLCO Interest Group meetings scheduled during the day.

Day two will be a full day of content programming, which will focus on the remaining themes of Curation and Innovation. The content we're bringing together is based on the results of a survey conducted earlier to determine your needs. Some of the confirmed programs include budget management, social media as an internal productivity tool, free/cheap apps to help you get the job done, Twitter 101, marketing your library, and exploring the new NELLCO website.

  

On Mon. eveing you'll enjoy  a reception at the New York State Museum in Albany. The Museum is housed in the Cultural Education Center, which is also home to the State Library and State Archives. The view above is looking from the Museum and Archives building across the Empire State Plaza. On the right side of this picture you can see The Egg, Center for the Performing Arts, an architecturally stunning venue, built over 12 years in the 60s and 70s, that defines the Albany skyline.

  

Registration for attendees will open in Nov. but you can visit the conference website for more information,. Please plan to attend and help us make this a successful inaugural event!

The University of Georgia law library has one of the most long standing and successful law repositories in the world. With the leadership of Carol Watson, DigitalCommons@University of Georgia School of Law regularly delivers a wide and impressive range of open access legal scholarship to a global audience.

 

They are not alone. Almost 30 law schools have followed their lead and established their own law-specific repositories in the past 3 years. As law repositories grow exponentially, more and more law libraries are looking for guidance - to make the case, to plan smartly, to staff efficiently, and most of all, to ensure and increase buy in every year.

 

Bepress is pleased to announce that Carol Watson will be sharing her expertise in a free webinar on October 19, 2011 at2:00 pm EST. You are cordially invited to attend. In this webinar, Carol will explore strategies for creating and developing an institutional repository at a law school, including building repository content beyond faculty scholarship.

 

Register here: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/970746866

 

Those of you in New England won't want to miss the Fall LLNE meeting, Art Law: Framing the issues. The meeting will be held on Fri. Oct. 21 (NEXT WEEK!) at the Clark Institute in Williamstown, MA. For complete information and registration please see http://www.lawlib.state.ma.us/llne/.

  New Website update

  

The new site, pictured above under construction, offers a much more user friendly and intuitive look and feel. Trials, offers and e-resource subscriptions and renewals will be handled through an e-commerce and shopping cart function to which we've all become accustomed in the online shopping environment. NELLCO members will also gain a great deal of direct interaction and opportunity for collaboration through the site's online community functionality. Facebook and twitter integration are supported, as well as other social networking features, like "online now" notifications so members can connect directly. You're going to see a lot of change, and we hope you will work with us to achieve a new site that serves all of us better and leads to greatly enhanced collaboration!

Current Trials

• Oxford University Press Scholarship Online (ends 11.30.2011)
•  First Street (ends 10.9.2011)

Upcoming Trials

• EBSCO Legal Source
• EBSCO eBooks

Have a resource you'd like us to pursue? Contact us!