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How to Manage a Tier 2 License

Document Your New Resource

Congratulations on your success in negotiating a license for an electronic resource!

Tier 2 resources are those for which campus selectors take the lead in negotiating the business and license terms. CDL Acquisitions will assume responsibility for the renewals and campus recharges if you document it fully. Please contact Adriana Moran soon as possible to discuss the new license and prepare a packet of information described below to send to her.

The checklist below should help you document the business arrangements that you are making with the vendor. It may look like a lot of detail, but consider that several years hence someone else may have to understand these arrangements sufficiently to renegotiate the license. Some information may be in the license itself, but your own comments are likely to be the most helpful in determining what was agreed.

Please remember, if you would like to delegate payment and maintenance to the CDL Acquisitions Department at UC San Diego, the terms must be very clear, including how the campus shares were determined.

General and Contact Information

  • Contact information of the sponsoring campus champion/negotiator – your name and campus contact information. If you will not be continuing as the Tier 2 contact, please also supply contact information for your successor.
  • Vendor contact information – the full company name, address, and contact information
  • Vendor rep – name and contact information
  • Product name – the exact names of the products licensed (e.g., DB name, list of journal titles w/ ISSNs, etc.)
  • Type of resource – what type of resource (i.e., A&I database, journal article database, full text online journals, electronic books, etc.)
  • Dates of Coverage – of the resource (E.g., 1851-1924, 1996 to present)
  • URL for access – from the vendor. Please supply individual title URL’s where applicable, or the syntax for creating them.
  • Names of participating campuses – what campuses have agreed to participate. Please include file documentation (e.g., email messages with CDO approvals from each participating campus)

Business Arrangement

  • Vendor’s Proposal – please include a copy of the final version of the vendor’s proposal. If you do not have a written quote, please document what you understand the business terms to be and ask the vendor to review.
  • Purchase price – total amount and itemized amounts for each product (if more than one).
  • Multi-campus discounts – the discount schedule and how it varies by number of participants, especially any advantage for the system over the standard price.
  • Additional discount – e.g., stable annual access fee for x years, cap on annual increases
  • Campus shares – How much will each campus pay? How was this determined (equal split, standard shares, or did campuses contribute what they can afford)?
  • Payments – are license fees one-time or annual fees, or both? Is the first year’s fee prorated? Are payments amortized (e.g., back files are sometimes amortized over several years)?
  • Subscription Renewal date – if there is an annual cost, the expected due date for the next payment
  • Updates – are future updates included in the license fee?
  • Existing campus subscriptions – credits to be issued to any campuses? Please note amounts and method of reimbursement if credits involved.
  • Cancellation – is cancellation of other formats allowed?

Licensing Terms

  • Signatory – which campus signed the license?
  • Duration of the contract – when does this contract begin and end? (E.g., 2 years, January 1, 2004 – December 31, 2005, or Annual)
  • Perpetual license – Does UC have perpetual access to the resource or any portion? If the contract is terminated, can the CDL take delivery of the data in some mutually agreed-upon electronic medium? (i.e., FTP electronic files, CD ROM)
  • Port restrictions – limits on numbers of simultaneous users, or unlimited? If restricted ports, how many ports are shared?
  • Authentication – the authentication method (IP filtering)? Proxy servers should be allowed.
  • Special terms – e.g., UC Merced included, SF free, etc.
  • Linking – will the vendor work with the CDL to create effective links (preferred: linking via OpenURL/link resolver)?
  • Classroom Use – do UC campuses have the right to use reasonable portions of these products in classrooms and electronic reserves, to the extent permitted by the classroom use provisions of copyright law?
    Interlibrary Loan – is electronic ILL permitted, or the creation of a print copy of electronic content for interlibrary loan between academic libraries for non-commercial educational purposes, whether or not both libraries license or subscribe to the materials? (Both libraries need to comply with Section 108 Interlibrary Loan provisions of the Copyright Law.)
  • Use Statistics – will the vendor provide monthly usage statistics at the campus level for individual products, in compliance with ICOLC standards? For more information, please see the Guidelines for Statistical Measures at: http://www.library.yale.edu/consortia/
  • Training – what training is offered (i.e., how many days; will the vendor travel to UC sites or provide at ALA, for example; what type of training – train the trainers or direct user training?)
  • MARC records – will the vendor provide free MARC records for large collections of monographic titles? MARC records are not needed for electronic journals or single-title databases.

Thank you for your effort!