[Foundation-l] Remarks on Wikimedia's fundraiser

[Andrew Gray]

On 8 March 2011 19:20, phoebe ayers <phoebe.wiki at gmail.com> wrote:

> Most (all?) university libraries sign contracts with database/journal
> vendors restricting access to only faculty/staff/students at the
> university. The library pays according to how many people that is.
> Giving access to others is generally a violation of that contract, and
> could variously: a) cause the library to lose access to the resource
> altogether, if the publisher determines that many 'unauthorized'
> people are gaining access or a great deal is being downloaded; b)
> cause the student to be sanctioned by the university for mis-using
> their log-in ID. So, uh, yeah, let's not do outreach asking for this.

I was about to reply and say much the same thing! (with the same hat on...)

A sample contract, for OUP journals:
http://www.oxfordjournals.org/help/instsitelicence.pdf

It's a pretty standard limitation: "... affiliated with the Licensee
as a current student, faculty, library patron, employee, ... or
physically present on the Licensee's premises."

Note the last caveat - many institutions will allow use of some
otherwise-restricted electronic resources to non-students when
physically on site. In these cases, accessibility is usually
comparable to that of reading room access - the conditions whereby
they'll let you come in and use a desk. Some institutions have an
entirely open-door policy, some just ask to fill in a form, some
charge a relatively nominal fee, some want evidence of a reason to be
there, etc.


Getting people in here is one way the WMF (or local chapters) could
play a part - the financial side of things fits well with the
microgrants programs some chapters have run to pay for books, etc, in
the past, and whilst I don't believe we currently sign things to say
people are doing valid research, there's no reason we couldn't start
doing so.

-- 
- Andrew Gray
  andrew.gray at dunelm.org.uk