Background: Acquiring Digital Resources

In determining how your institution or organization may acquire digital resources, there are several considerations to reflect upon:

Community Engagement

What resources does your community need to meet their educational or informational needs?

Strategy & Negotiation

How will you go about engaging with content providers? What principles or model licenses will you use to negotiate favorable terms? 

Access Frameworks

Will you focus on using traditional licenses, SERUs, or digital ownership principles to acquire digital resources?

Management & Preservation

How will you ingest digital assets into your collection, ensuring sustained access and effectively stewarding these resources into the future? 

Before diving into the nuances of licensing language and strategy, it’s important to familiarize yourself with the various models of digital acquisition, including common terminology found in the collection development ecosystem. The resources below provide a foundational overview of these terms:

📗 Acquisition Models - Health Sciences Collection Development: An Overview of Fundamental Knowledge and Practices (2nd Edition), written by the Medical Library Association Collection Development Caucus - 2023

  • A concise overview of acquisition models. Though primarily focused on health sciences resources, it succinctly describes common acquisition models as well as several publishers and players in the scholarly landscape. 

🌐 Licensing vocabulary from LIBLICENSE - 2015

  • LIBLICENSE provides a number of valuable resources to those working with digital licensing. This page provides definitions for words and phrases commonly found in licensing agreements. 

📗 Chapter 2: Glossary of Terms - Managing Licensed E-Resources: Techniques, Tips, and Practical Advice, edited by Galadriel Chilton - 2022

  • Terminology that bridges the above resources, focusing on common vocabulary in acquisitions, e-resource management, and licensing.

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This toolkit is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 License.