Electronic resources librarians are used to negotiating licenses that mitigate risk and maximize the ability of users to take advantage of content. But mostly we are not used to conceptualizing the work of licensing holistically, weaving licenses into our systems and workflows and sharing the processes and terms with our users and colleagues. This presentation looks at licensing holistically through the lens of system design. We will focus on how license management takes place in our Ex Libris Alma next-gen system and how license terms are displayed to end users in our Primo discovery service. We will review testing, decision-making, and implementation processes for license management in these systems. We will give examples of how licensing impacts every part of the library organization. We will describe how we wrote policies and “answer keys” to explain terms of use in ways that faculty and students understand. We will discuss ways to educate staff and end users about the process of licensing and the ramifications of license terms. In the process we will discover ways to maximize our transparency and negotiating power. Attendees will leave this session with a holistic understanding of licensing as work that continues long after signature and that is integrated into library systems and workflows.
