Library Committees

License Review Team

Reports To: The Associate University Librarian for Collections, Preservation, and Digital Scholarship (CPDS) serves as the sponsor for the LRT and acts as ex officio member.

Committee Charge: The License Review Team (LRT) formed under the auspices of the Yale University Library is responsible for:

• Reviewing and negotiating all subscribed or purchased electronic content agreements (licenses) with publishers and vendors. Reviewers advocate for accessibility standards, perpetual access rights as appropriate, broad use/user terms, vendor/publisher performance standards, and limiting risk as key elements of each contract;

• Consulting as needed with selectors concerning costs and business terms;

• Recording the status of licenses under review and monitoring the licensing workflow through execution;

• Working collaboratively to develop and modify the licensing workflow to meet new needs over time;

• Implementing procedures to ensure long-term document retention and retrievability;

• Disseminating uncommon agreement terms to library units and users of the licensed content where appropriate; and

• Responding to license-related questions from library staff and users.

Frequency of Meetings: LRT meets monthly to discuss new/improved/modified model clauses; workflow changes and improvements; new license type/use cases such as local hosting and streaming video; and other matters related to the LRT responsibilities described above. Daily activity is conducted using an active listserv (licrev@mailman.yale.edu ) and the ERSM Licensing Sharepoint site to track and document negotiation process, license status, and completed agreements.

Term of Service: Ongoing

Committee Eligibility: The team is chaired by the Copyright Librarian and Contracting Specialist who provides ongoing guidance and support for the review of license agreements. The Copyright Librarian and Contracting Specialist is responsible for consulting with the Yale Office of General Counsel (OGC), where appropriate, on licensing questions that arise through the work of LRT. The team is comprised of individuals from central Collection Development, E-Resource and Serials Management (ERSM), Marx Science and Social Science Library, Medical, and Department of Area Studies and Humanities Research Support (DASHRS) who are primarily responsible for reviewing license agreements. Additional license reviewers on the team may include individuals from other library subject areas. Members from the library’s ERSM group have primary responsibility for maintaining systems and ensuring consistent workflow, document management, and retention for YUL license agreements. Term of service for each member is ongoing, and typically tied to their position responsibilities.