They provide bibliographic and management services to libraries, and an effective distribution channel for 20,000 publishers world-wide. The negotiation and management of licenses for electronic information is a natural expansion of this long-established activity. They have brought unparallelled experience of libraries and their needs to these licenses. Without the huge effort that has already gone into licensing during the 1990s, these licenses would not have been possible. It was a vital source of format, concepts and model provisions.
Grateful acknowledgement is due to all.
They do not prescribe the outcome of those negotiations, but are designed to account for the varying needs of different types of customer, and the requirements and policies of different publishers. They contain a range of variables, so that the clause appropriate to each situation can be selected in compiling the license. They are the result of consultation in which librarians, publishers and subscription agents have been actively involved. Scholarly publishing is truly international in its scope. But licenses have to take account of local circumstances and local legal requirements.