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Resource for evaluating license agreements and contracts Daniel Jones 26 Jun 1996 20:37 UTC

At the NASIG meeting last week during the concurrent session "Issues in
electronic licencing," I mentioned the University of Texas System web
site on intellectual property which has an interactive checklist
designed to help us manage and negotiate license agreements.  I did not
have the URL at the time, so I promised to send it this week.

The URL for the Intellectual property homepage is

   http://www.utsystem.edu/OGC/IntellectualProperty/INDEX.HTM

If you go down the page to a section headed Contracts, the specific
checklist I was referring to is

Software and Database License Agreement Checklist

and its URL is

   http://www.utsystem.edu/OGC/IntellectualProperty/dbckfrm1.htm

Whether or not you attended NASIG, if you have to deal with license
agreements and contracts you might want to look at this sites as it
allows you to select from the checklist common statements in contracts
and license agreements from electronic "publishers", then gives an
analysis and suggestions on how to modify the contract so that it meets
requirements of the UT System and Texas law.  Much of the information
probably will apply in other states, too.  It might serve as a good
model for other university systems to advise their librarians on how to
manage these agreements.

By the way, the NASIG program was solid, as usual, and the planners
deserve credit and applause for their effort.  The folks at UNM did a
great job making us feel welcome and comfortable throughout the meeting.

Danny Jones (jones@uthscsa.edu)
Assistant Library Director for Collection Development
Briscoe Library
University of Texas Health Science Center
San Antonio, Texas