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About

ERM graphic of a mobile phone surrounded by many icons

As the University of Rochester’s recognized resource service, the Electronic Resources Management (ERM) team extend access to the University’s collections to the research community, steward the University's scholarly investment, and provide value through shared processes.

Drawing from deep and diverse expertise across the University of Rochester Libraries, the joint ERM Committee advances a unified resource strategy and coordinated licensing services at the University. 

Vendor and Publisher Representatives, please review our Declaration of Vendor Expectations prior to requesting a meeting.

 

The ERM team

Co-Chair: Kristin Moo, Director, Academic Resources, River Campus Libraries
Co-Chair: Elizabeth Merkle, Head of Collections & Systems, Edward G. Miner Library

Members

Sharon Briggs, Head of Acquisitions, River Campus Libraries
Moriana Garcia, Scholarly Communication Librarian, River Campus Libraries
Sandy Lemmon, Head of Acquisitions & Serials, Sibley Music Library
Jennifer McCarthy, Acquisitions Assistant for Collections & Systems, Edward G. Miner Library

 

Licensing Principles and Requirements

Scholarly Activities
The University of Rochester Libraries' collections support the education, research, and clinical mission at the University of Rochester. We seek agreements that allow for the use of our resources that address the many ways of encountering and accessing collections as data.

This includes but is not limited to:

  • Agreements that allow for the use of materials in course reserves.
  • Agreements that allow for interlibrary loan lending.
  • Agreements that allow for data and text mining covered under Fair Use (US Copyright Law, Section 107).
  • Agreements that promote the preferences of our patrons for reading and utilizing the content

Values
As a NERL institution, the University LIbraries embrace NERL's Core Values for agreements: Transparency, Sustainability, Equity, Reproducibility, and Flexibility. 

Cost
Ensuring access during these uncertain times, which continue to have profound economic consequences on the scholarly enterprise, is of the utmost importance. Any renewal submitted with a cost increase during FY20/21/22 will not be accepted without accompanying justification. The libraries will prioritize vendor and publisher partners that provide cost-neutral and reduced renewals.

Term
In order to ensure an appropriate collection that is continually evolving to meet emerging needs and steward a necessarily constrained budget, the libraries will prioritize single year renewal options for FY 20/21/22. Any renewal submitted with multi-year terms will not be accepted without accompanying justification.

Non-disclosure agreement
The University of Rochester Libraries encourages and participates in collaborative efforts with other libraries and consortia partners regarding our holdings and policies, and we seek licenses that do not place us under a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). If a license does require an NDA, the NDA should allow for the sharing of license language with other institutions while preventing disclosure of other aspects, such as pricing and must be accompanied by justification.

Cancellation/Exigency
It is important that the libraries retain the right to cancel with appropriate notice to preserve the ability to make decisions that have budgetary implications, such as the evaluation of resources based on usage data. The libraries seek renewal or cancellation terms that require no more than 30 days’ notice. We will not accept any license that does not include an exigency clause.

Accessibility
The University of Rochester Libraries is committed to providing all Rochester students, faculty, clinicians, and staff equitable access to resources. We expect our agreements to outline how products comply with our expectations. We prioritize partners who meet W3C’s Web Accessibility Content Guidelines.

Privacy
We value the privacy and confidentiality of our patrons. Privacy includes, but is not limited to, usage statistics. We expect agreements to align with this value and provide explicit protections for patron privacy.

Open Access
The University of Rochester Libraries supports gold and green open access models of publishing.

Green
We seek agreements that allow for self-archiving, offer the retention of publication rights, foster open-access scholarship, and support institutional and funder policies for authors and creators.

Gold
We seek agreements that provide opportunities to reinvest subscription fees towards open access, as evidenced through journal subscriptions that support gold open access or institutional memberships.

Perpetual Access and Preservation
Licenses should specify the content and means by which the libraries can ensure access to content in perpetuity if post-cancellation access rights are included. We strongly prefer vendors that utilize industry-standard solutions such as LOCKSS, CLOCKSS, or PORTICO for both post-cancelation access (if applicable) and digital preservation.

The libraries expect perpetual access in the following cases:

  • Content that is in a fixed, final form (e.g., books, journal articles, films, etc.), with the corpus comprised of many subunits, each of which can be used independently of the entire corpus
  • A backfile or historic section of an ongoing publication
  • A fixed archival content purchase
  • Content is licensed as part of a growing front list with decided agreement and expectation that subscribed years have post-cancellation rights
  • Content is expected to have long-term relevance

 

Criteria for Open Access Agreements

These criteria were developed by the Electronic Resources Management Team at the University of Rochester’s Libraries to guide decisions for selection of Open Access Agreements, which may also be termed “Transformative” or "Transitional" Agreements.

For the purposes of the Libraries, Open Access Agreements are any investment, acquisition, or subscription which results in University of Rochester researchers’ publications being made Open Access.

These criteria integrate the MELIORA and ICARE values, in tandem with the ERM Licensing Principles. Above all, all agreements must match the Libraries’ commitment to excellence of service and content.

Equitable Access
The University of Rochester will prioritize agreements that open and extend access as broadly as possible. Scholarship and knowledge should be openly available to the public, which often subsidizes its creation through grants. Meliora is not for some, it is for all. The Libraries commit to increasing access to the University of Rochester's research, and supporting fully open access publishers.

Knowledge Creation
The University of Rochester will prioritize agreements that connect to our researchers and their needs, supporting their creation of new knowledge and its dissemination. We pursue agreements that have the most impact for our researchers, and support new and emerging models that directly address their needs. We are committed to authors understanding and retaining their rights and working with partners who respect author's rights.

Cost Sustainability
The University of Rochester will prioritize agreements that are cost neutral. Through our negotiations with publishers we seek to transform the scholarly communication system towards sustainable open access as it connects to our institutional commitment to Sustainable Scholarship. As stewards of the University of Rochester’s Scholarly Estate, we view long-term sustainability as an aspect of preservation. We continually assess our partnerships to realize this goal.

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University of Rochester Libraries Licensing Principles and Requirements by University of Rochester ERM is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.