aserl-collection-strategy Mailing List: REMINDER: Seeking 'peer reviewers' to evaluate vendors' boilerplate T&C

[John Burger (jburger]

Hey folks:

A quick reminder that we are welcoming any volunteers to join our new process 
for reviewing boilerplate license terms for adherence to the ASERL Eleven 
principles.  So far we have 8 people from 7 ASERL institutions who have 
volunteered.  <-- A good group, but we are always happy to include more / 
others!  We hope to kick off this process this summer.


Kind regards,

--j.e.b.

John Burger, Executive Director
Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL)
540 Asbury Circle, #316
Atlanta, Georgia  30322

404-218-4207 -- cellular


From: John Burger
Sent: Thursday, March 16, 2023 8:56 AM
To: aserl-collection-strategy [at] aserl-lists.org
Cc: bcb4y [at] virginia.edu; neastby [at] vt.edu; amechterling [at] vcu.edu; 
dillarda [at] mailbox.sc.edu; pkain [at] uab.edu; lkuyper [at] lsu.edu; 
jamezick [at] utk.edu; notted [at] lsu.edu; tlminche [at] ncsu.edu; sschmucker 
[at] fsu.edu; ctorbert [at] olemiss.edu; Skye Hardesty <skye [at] gsu.edu>; 
Palazzolo, Christopher <cpalazz [at] emory.edu>; Pascale, Christee <CPASCALE 
[at] mailbox.sc.edu>
Subject: Seeking 'peer reviewers' to evaluate vendors' boilerplate T&C

Good morning, ASERL Friends -

Several of you joined us last week to discuss how we might collaborate to put 
the "ASERL Eleven" licensing 
principles<https://www.aserl.org/2022/02/aserl-eleven-licensing-principles/> 
into practice.  This idea floated to the top of the list of idea:  Identify a 
pool of ASERL colleagues to serve as 'peer reviewers' to review the boilerplate 
terms and conditions we receive from vendors who want to offer products via 
ASERL.

The goal would be to discern whether the boilerplate terms align with the ASERL 
Eleven principles or vary significantly from them.  Those licenses that align 
would receive a positive indicator (a green check mark, or something) on the 
offer webpage; those that do not align would get a negative indicator ("caveat 
emptor" or red X or something).  The goal is to use this 
affirmation/calling-out as a means of getting vendors to modify their terms to 
get closer to our principles and the library-centered values they represent.

Might you like to serve as one of the anonymous peer reviewers in our pool?  I 
expect there would be no more than 4 - 6 licenses per year that would be 
reviewed; we have two from recent offers that we could use as test cases to 
help us discern the work flows / ground rules for this process into the future.

Please let me know if you'd like to be on our list or have other questions.

TIMING:  We'd like to have this group identified by June 1, 2023 so we can 
develop processes and be ready to evaluate licenses starting in early Fall 2023.

Thanks for your consideration of this request!

Kind regards,

--j.e.b.

John Burger, Executive Director
Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL)
540 Asbury Circle, #316
Atlanta, Georgia  30322

404-218-4207 -- cellular