Licensing

Publishers will continue to play an essential role in evaluating and distributing secondary literature. All four partner organisations currently use different models and strategies for the procurement of digital content on a national level. Within the context of licensing, Knowledge Exchange partners are exploring interaction on various levels.

An initial meeting in Bonn on 11 July 2006 created a framework for testing multinational licensing.

Multinational tender
In a second meeting, involving national licensing experts from the four countries, held in Berlin on 11 September 2006, the participants decided that a joint multinational tender would move the Bonn agenda forward while minimising many of the risks involved. The first stage of the pilot tender process began to take form in early 2007.

Competitive dialogue

On 14 February 2007 Knowledge Exchange issued a Request for Information, starting the first round of the European Union tender process known as a ”competitive dialogue”. The second round of the tender process, a Request for Proposals began in July 2007. Once proposals are received and the selection process is completed, libraries associated with the four partner organisations will be able to opt in or opt out during the fall and winter of 2007.  

National Licensing Workshop

On 19 and 20 February 2007, Knowledge Exchange held aNational Licensing Workshop in Copenhagen where fourty experts were invited to discuss various aspects of licensing agreements, negotiation and administration. A benchmarking study concerning licensing methods was also initiated in order to build a common overview of licensed content.

Working group

A Knowledge Exchange working group is involved with licensing and benchmarking issues. Read more about the Licensing Working Group.

For more information

Contact working group lead Wilma Mossink, SURFfoundation, Bas Cordewener, SURFfoundation, or the Knowledge Exchange office (general information).