Virtual Words and Education | Main | Open-access textbooks: will Flat World Knowledge show the way?
February 01, 2009
SERU vs licenses: a real alternative for the acquisition of electronic resources?
In the December 2008 issue of College & Research Libaries News, there is a fascinating article on a document called SERU (Shared Electronic Resource Understanding) which was adopted by NISO (National Information Standards Organization) in early 2008 as an alternative framework for both publishers and libraries to use during the subscription process for e-resources. SERU assumes that since the early days of subscribing to e-resources, both publishers and libraries have attained a level of knowledge about these transactions and the realities of usage so that they should be able to agree on certain practices without explicitly addressing these issues in every purchasing situation. SERU references copyright law and regulations and certainly does not supercede any copyright law, but takes the approach that the two parties do not need to reinvent the wheel, so to speak, when the time rolls around to purchase a new subcription by spelling out exactly what is allowed or disallowed.
SERU is statement of shared understandings that both parties must agree to use in place of time-consumming licensing negotiations, but it is strictly voluntary. If either party does not feel SERU serves their needs, they may turn back to more standard licensing negotiations. In reading the support documents for SERU at www.niso.org/workrooms/seru, it appears that SERU may be adopted by both parties in instances that both feel are suitable, but neither party can change any aspect of SERU because some aspect of it does not fit their needs. In that case, NISO recommends that SERU be set aside in favor of the traditional negotiations. The shifting landscape of e-resources could certainly use the solid ground provided by SERU, but only if both parties can move beyond the mistrust and fear of litigation and misuse that lurks in the background during licensing negotiations. SERU recognizes that the market for purchase of e-resources has matured and offers both parties the option of skipping a lot of the usual preliminaries and saving a great deal of time and effort.
-Andrea Odom
Posted by colldev at February 1, 2009 08:46 PM