Welcome to the latest edition of the ‘ethics round up’ brought to you by your SLA Legal Division ethics ambassador.

In past updates we have explored ethics from a range of perspectives. We have looked at ethics in law librarianship through statements from your fellow Legal Division members. We discussed how best to conduct yourself over the holiday period (and how to approach technology). Most recently, we looked at integrity in relation to ethics. In this newsletter, I would like to encourage us, as information professionals, to broaden our minds from looking at our own service’s best practice, to exploring that of the institutions we work for.

Whilst I’m sure that all SLA members will be aware of the professional ethics guidelines, how many of us are aware of if our organisation has it’s own ethics code? The chances are it isn’t collated together into one neat document – most likely there are a range of conduct guidelines to follow, but is is vital that each of these is adhered to, allowing you to represent yourself and your firm in the best possible light.

Why not try to track down and pull together points that your institution considers key to acting in an ethical manner, and then try to match these against your information service’s approach? An improvement could be something as simple as donating old editions of key law texts to Pro Bono charities instead of recycling them. Or perhaps if your library operates on social media, maybe you need to check if the way in which it is operating also adheres to your organisation’s approach to ensure consistency?

It isn’t just about aligning yourself with your organisation though – as librarians and information professionals we are well equipped to influence others. We have excellent current awareness skills, and are tapped into how others are operating. Hopefully, we also have great relationships with key stakeholders in our institutions. We also tend to be good at thinking on a large, almost grandiose, scale. Perhaps you feel your organisation’s approaches could be updated? If so, try to effect a change (although, please do so respectfully)!

To leave you with some really big ethical ideas to ponder over, and get the creative juices flowing, I give you a link to the University of Oxford’s Practical Ethics Blog. The following post is from back in November 2012 and outlines some of the best new ethical decisions of last year.

Wouldn’t it be great to have an information professional on this list next year? I see that as perfectly achievable. We work in one of the most exciting, fast moving industries around. Information. The time seems right for an information professional to step up and help to think about how we all access information; be it in our homes, our libraries, institutions, or globally. Get thinking!

Best wishes,
Sam Wiggins
SLA Legal Division Ethics Ambassador

¡Buenas Tardes!

This won’t be a full blown Diversity Update, but, given the holiday, I thought that I would share a few posts by our friends at In Custodia Legis (the blog [or, blawg, if you prefer] of the Law Library of Congress).

Enjoy!

• The History of the Mexican Constitution
• Cinco de Mayo is Not Mexican Independence Day?
• 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Puebla (aka Cinco de Mayo!) – Pic of the Week

Keep an eye out for the Committee’s full Diversity Update for May 2013, on Military Law Resources, later in month.

Bacilio Mendez II,  Diversity Committee Chair

On May 8, many people got to watch the Queen’s Speech. No, this wasn’t a sequel to the film The King’s Speech, but a ceremonial event, full of pomp and pageantry, which dates back many years. It is part of the State Opening of Parliament in Westminster and marks the formal start of the Parliamentary year.

The State Opening begins with the Queen’s procession from Buckingham Palace to Westminster and to the House of Lords. After she arrives at the House, Black Rod (a House of Lords official) goes to summon the members of the House of Commons to the Lords. As he does so, the doors to the Commons are shut in his face – a tradition which dates back to the Civil War to symbolise the Commons’ independence. After knocking on the door three times, he enters the Commons and addresses the Speaker, commanding the members of the Commons to “attend her Majesty immediately”. Members of the Commons then follow Black Rod to the House of Lords to listen to the speech.

The length of the speech has varied over the years – the Guardian has compiled some data on the word count of the speeches since 1994. You can see how the length peaked in the late 1990s – the first years of the new Labour government – and the recent speeches have been comparatively quite short.

The Queen doesn’t actually write the speech herself – it is written by the Government and sets out the legislative agenda for the forthcoming Parliamentary term. This year’s speech contained announcements of Bills relating to intellectual property, the High-Speed Two railway line, the reform of long-term care, pensions – along with many more.

Further reading:
•    The Guardian has produced a helpful explanation of what was said in the speech
•    The Daily Telegraph have provided a timeline of events of the day.
•    Follow the hashtag: #QueensSpeech on Twitter.
•    Watch the State Opening on YouTube.
•    Parliament.uk: State Opening of Parliament explained

Anneli Sarkanen
SLA Legal Division International Relations Committee

April is Financial Literacy Month and as law librarians, we sometimes find ourselves spontaneously promoted to the role of hearer of confessions and keeper of secrets. I, myself, have not been immune.

While a graduate student at Pratt, I served the pro se litigants of Kings County (aka Brooklyn), as the Nathan R. Sobel Law Library Fellow of the New York State Unified Court System and, though patrons would come to the Law Library to research one legal issue, more often than not, all roads would lead to them asking me for secondary and/or completely non-legal resources to help them deal with their seemingly insurmountable personal debt. An uncomfortable position to be in at any age, but especially so as a twenty-something Manhattanite standing in front of an elderly patron about to lose their apartment.

My example may never be the case for you, but the fact of the matter is, at some point, be you a public law librarian assisting a walk-in or a corporate/academic law librarian approached in confidence by a colleague or friend, you will be faced with someone in the same boat as Confessions‘ protagonist—barely afloat and in desperate need of something outside of our grab bag of legal resources. Below, I offer you a few oars (ranging from the “highly academic” to the “kid friendly”) to throw their way.

Reports/Testimony/Speeches of Interest

• Payday Loans and Deposit Advance Products: A White Paper of Initial Data Findings — During the past year, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has engaged in an indepth review of short-term small dollar loans, specifically payday loans extended by nondepository institutions and deposit advance products offered by a small, but growing, number of depository institutions to their deposit account customers.
• Annual Report on the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) — From the report: “This report covers much good work done together over the past year by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission. In the last year, we began an important new chapter in the history of the FDCPA. Under the larger participant rule recently adopted by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau  any firm with more than $10 million in annual receipts from consumer debt collection activities is now subject to our supervisory authority. This authority extends to about 175 debt collectors, which accounts for over 60% of the industry’s annual receipts in the consumer debt collection market. This new federal authority enables us both to protect consumers and to promote a level playing field for all law-abiding debt collectors.”
• The Structure and Practices of the Debt Buying Industry — 2013 report published by the Federal Trade Commission
• Dept. of Commerce Fact Sheet: The Investing In Manufacturing Communities Partnership (IMCP) — The IMCP is a new Administration-wide initiative that will accelerate the resurgence of manufacturing and help communities cultivate an environment for businesses to create well-paying manufacturing jobs in cities across the country.
• Aspects of Inequality in the Recent Business Cycle — Governor Sarah Bloom Raskin at the “Building a Financial Structure for a More Stable and Equitable Economy” 22nd Annual Hyman P. Minsky Conference on the State of the U.S. and World Economies, New York, New York, April 18, 2013
• “Who is Too Big to Fail: Does Dodd-Frank Authorize the Government to Break Up Financial Institutions?” — Hearing before the Committee on Financial Services, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. April 16, 2013

Articles/Videos/Webinars of Interest

• USA Today — Be wary of prepaid card protection: ‘Reloadable’ cards are popular, but many are not protected by federal insurance. — Written by Sheila Bair, the former chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and a senior adviser at The Pew Charitable Trusts.
• The DA Focus Archives — Past issues of the the Quarterly World Service Newsletter for the Fellowship of Debtors Anonymous
• The FTC Blog — Helping Victims of the Bombing in Boston — Make Sure Your Donations Count
• Senior Identity Theft: A Problem in This Day and Age — On May 7th the Federal Trade Commission will bring together experts from government, private industry, and public interest groups to discuss the unique challenges facing victims of senior identity theft. The free, in-person forum and webinar will include panels on different types of senior identity theft – tax and government benefits, medical, and long-term care – and will also explore the best consumer education and outreach techniques for reaching seniors.
• In March 2012, Chairman Ben S. Bernanke delivered a four-part lecture series about the Federal Reserve and the financial crisis that emerged in 2007. The series began with a lecture on the origins and missions of central banks, followed by a lecture that discussed the role and actions of the Federal Reserve in the period after World War II. In the final two lectures, the Chairman reviewed some of the causes of, and policy responses to, the recent financial crisis, focusing specifically on the actions of the Federal Reserve. The lectures were offered as part of an undergraduate course  at the George Washington University School of Business. On-demand video, transcripts, and presentation slides are available for each lecture.
• Civil Legal Advice and Resource Office (CLARO) Documentary — Produced by the Feerick Center of Fordham Law School
• The CFPB Blog — Buying a car? Here’s what you need to know

eBooks of Interest

• Managing Debt to Improve Your Mental Wealth — Living underneath the burden of debt is a scary place to be. But there is a way out. First, we will look at the far-reaching impact of debt. Then, we will help you understand your personal situation and relationship with debt. Finally, we will give you the tips and tools you need to create your own plan that can set you on the path to financial freedom.
• The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Personal Finance — Prosperity and success are what many entrepreneurs envision when they start their own business. However, it takes more than a vision for your business to succeed. Capital, the money needed to start, operate, and grow a business is important, as is managing your personal finances while balancing the demands of your business. Fortunately, you have options when it comes to funding your business and the opportunity to gain the skills you need to effectively manage your finances both at work and at home.
• Love & Money — Noticing the polarizing effects finances can have on the most committed of couples, the educators at MMI have addressed both. Part one is a fun, flirty take on love and money, while part two addresses the more pressing concerns of couples by offering advice on making finances a delight, rather than a drain, on your relationship. As a bonus, part three features ideas to spark conversation and candid talk from couples on love and money.

Websites of Interest

• “April has been declared National Financial Literacy Month; and for good reason. Too many Americans are insufficiently educated about their personal finances. In honor of Financial Literacy Month, the experts at Money Management International created the Financial Literacy Month website. No matter what day or month of the year a consumer begins their 30 step path to financial wellness, it will help them to create a successful strategy to better their overall financial position.”
• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — The mission of the Bureau is to make markets for consumer financial products and services work for Americans — whether they are applying for a mortgage, choosing among credit cards, or using any number of other consumer financial products.
• How to file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) — The FTC is the nation’s consumer protection agency. If a business doesn’t make good on its promises or cheats you out of your money, the FTC wants to know.
• Filing Consumer Complaints — Advice from USA.gov on how to file a complaint and resolve consumer problems.
• Quick Links for Consumers & Communities compiled by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) — Topics include: Foreclosure Prevention; Identity Theft & Privacy; Financial Education; Banking Tools & Resources; Consumer Protection Assistance; and more.
• OnGuard Online — is the federal government’s website to help you be safe, secure and responsible online. The FTC manages OnGuard Online and is a partner in the Stop Think Connect campaign, led by the Department of Homeland Security, and part of the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education, led by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
• Read the Consumer Action Handbook Online — Links to all the consumer topics, from banking to wills (and more).
• The Civil Legal Advice and Resource Office (CLARO) provides limited legal advice to low-income New Yorkers being sued by debt collectors. CLARO is organized through the New York State Courts Access to Justice Program.
• Feerick Center of Fordham Law School: Fighting Poverty Through Partnerships — Fordham Law’s Feerick Center for Social Justice works with students, alumni, lawyers, and community volunteers to connect low-income New Yorkers to the legal resources they need and cannot afford. We train law students and others to engage in social change efforts.
• The College Affordability and Transparency Center (CATC) — The CATC was designed by the U.S. Department of Education to meet requirements in the Higher Education Opportunity Act and to provide better information to student and parent consumers about college costs. It serves as a central point to several tools that allow users to compare colleges tuition and fees, net price, and other characteristics. The CATC is maintained by the Office of Postsecondary Education with support and technical assistance from the National Center of Education Statistics.

Teach Children to Save Day
April 23rd is Teach Children to Save Day; here are some resources to help your patrons talk to their kids about managing their personal finances.

• The “It’s A Habit!” Company, Inc. (IAHC) is a socially conscious startup corporation located in Los Angeles, California that is dedicated to teaching financial literacy and other empowering life skills and habits in a strategic manner (ie. both entertaining and educational) to youths of all ages, with a focus on young children and their families. To achieve this objective, IAHC has spent the last five years developing and testing a children’s character (Sammy Rabbit), messages, products and services. The result of those efforts is Sammy … a rabbit with great habits! Simply put, Sammy is a wholesome, positive, multi media, multilingual message machine everyone can be proud to be associated with. Sammy’s first and favorite great habit is to save money.
• Prosperity4Kids, Inc. — Giving kids the vocabulary, tools, games, and resources that engage them in the wonderful world of money.
• Money As You Grow: 20 Things Kids Need to Know to Live Financially Smart Lives — was developed as an initiative of the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability.
• Money as You Learn — provides teachers with Common Core aligned texts, lessons, and tasks that connect the Common Core to real life applications while also equipping students with the knowledge needed to make smart financial decisions.
• Kiplinger — How Parents Can Be Financial Role Models — Written by Janet Bodnar, editor of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine, author of Money Smart Women and Raising Money Smart Kids

See you next month!

Bacilio Mendez II,  Diversity Committee Chair

Members of the Legal Division may be intrigued to read about a recent decision here in the UK relating to copyright and reading material on the internet. What makes this case interesting is the effect this could have on everyday users of the internet and their day-to-day browsing.

When a webpage is viewed on a computer, temporary copies are made in the internet cache on the hard disk of the computer. No actual copy made unless the webpage is downloaded or printed. Temporary copies of copyright material on a computer is dealt with by section 28A of the Copy, Designs and Patents Act 1988, which gives effect to an EU Directive giving copyright owners various rights.

In this case, a company called Meltwater (often used by marketing departments) provides members of a professional association with programmes to create a daily index of words appearing on newspaper websites in order to monitor news coverage for clients – customers supply Meltwater with search terms and a report is produced listing the results.

The question to be considered was whether Meltwater’s customers needed a licence from the Newspaper Licensing Agency to receive its service as the report is made available only on Meltwater’s website. The lower courts held that a licence would be required.

The Supreme Court judges said that because the temporary copying is necessary for the internet to work, a licence would not be required – if so, then everyday users could be held liable. Lord Sumption clarified: “if it is an infringement merely to view copyright material, without downloading or printing out, then those who browse the internet are likely unintentionally to incur civil liability, at least in principle, by merely coming upon a web-page containing copyright material in the course of browsing. This seems an unacceptable result, which would make infringers of many millions of ordinary users of the internet across the EU who use browsers and search engines for private as well as commercial purposes.”

On Wednesday last week, the UK Supreme Court gave its provisional views on how the Directive should be interpreted and then referred the question to the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) asking them to rule on whether these temporary copies breach copyright laws.

So whilst there is no decision on this issue yet (we will have to wait a while for the ECJ’s decision and then for our courts to rule again) I think it is interesting to consider what impact this may have on everyday users of the internet and the work we do as information professionals, including advising other departments on copyright, if it is decided these temporary copies are held to breach copyright – heaven forbid!

Please note that the above is a summary of the case as I see it.  I am not legally qualified and this should not be taken as legal advice!

Further reading:

• Judgment: Public Relations Consultants Association Limited v Newspaper Licensing Agency and others, [2013] UKSC 18
• Press summary from Supreme Court (pdf)
• Field Fisher Waterhouse e-alerter
• Newspaper Licensing Agency press release (pdf)

Anneli Sarkanen
SLA Legal Division International Relations Committee

Enjoy!

Bacilio Mendez II (filling in for Jennifer Dismukes Vail, Diversity Committee Chair)
SLA New York Chapter Diversity Chair

What are libraries best known for? The willingness to share, of course!  This month we are looking at COLLABORATIONS!

• THE PRIME DIRECTIVE – To establish and expand your network of colleagues.
• Become involved in library organizations on all levels – locally, statewide, nationally, and internationally.
• Get to know the librarians whose organizations are located near your own organization.
• To the extent your employer allows, be willing to share advice and resources with all of your colleagues.
• Modern-day tools, like e-mail, discussion lists, and scanning, not to mention FedEx and UPS, are making sharing a lot easier.

BORROWING

• Do your homework before requesting a loan – if possible:
  • Make sure you have the full bibliographic record for the item you are looking for.
  • Find out how quickly your client needs the item and plan accordingly.
  • Determine which libraries may have the item you are looking for.
  • Only contact one library at a time – wait until you hear back from that library before contacting another.
  • Once you find a library willing to loan the item, arrange with the librarian how to pick up the item or have the item sent.
  • Determine any additional costs involved and relay that information to your client.

• Try to limit your use of discussion lists to request interlibrary loans of materials, especially for those items that are commonly available.
• If you are looking for a section from a treatise, consider using online resources that you have available that have tables of contents.
• If you are looking for an article, check the Internet to see whether the article might be available for free or for a reasonable fee online.
• Be aware of all the cost involved in getting a document: your billable time, messenger and/or delivery costs, document retrieval costs (typically, $20-40 for a journal article, $50-$200 for a court filing)

LENDING

• Set a reasonable due date and be willing to extend the loan, if the item is not immediately needed by your own clients.
• Be sure to note that the loan is subject to recall, in the event that your own client needs it back.
• If the book needs to be sent by a delivery service such as FedEx or UPS, consider asking the borrower to provide their company’s account number for the charge.
• If a library only needs a section from a treatise, consider scanning and sending a PDF of the section, rather than loaning the entire book.
• Always be aware of copyright restrictions.

ADVICE

• Imagine what it would be like if you were in the shoes of your colleague who is asking for help.
• Be an active participant in discussion lists.
• Be considerate and respectful of others when posting to discussion lists.
• Be sensitive to your own employer’s policies and procedures concerning interactions with others outside of your own organization.
• Consider being a MENTOR (hint-hint) for your colleagues who are new to the profession – you have a lot to share!

Joan Ogden
SLA Legal Division Mentoring Committee Chair

It is time for another report from your ethics ambassador! In a break from tradition, rather than simply pointing you to resources this update poses two questions to get you thinking about ethics in libraries and information services.

Quite a lot has happened in the wider world regarding ethical practice of late; Australian sport was shocked by doping scandals, Lance Armstrong went on Oprah, and in the UK ex-MP Chris Huhne was charged with perverting the course of justice.

But what relevance do any these have to the library and information sector? Well, one of the above examples in particular caused great discussion in the library and information sphere. Any ideas which?

Of course, it was Lance, and the news that a library service had moved his books to the fiction department as a joke…

The humorous sign prompted a statement from the library service’s managers stating that books would not be reclassified without first receiving instructions from the Libraries Australia governing body. The important question to ask here is, did the library’s statement put ethics and their own integrity too far ahead of realising the humour intended by the sign? Is there a line to be drawn when the library’s integrity is put under the spotlight, or is there room for a bit of fun in a library service? I like to think that the two can be synonymous.

Elsewhere, the Google books settlement has been drawn back into the public eye. The BBC has aired a programme called Google and the World Brain in which the ethics behind digitising books is examined alongside Google’s intentions. For those in the UK, it is available on iPlayer for the rest of the week. For those outside the UK, information on the programme can be found here: http://www.worldbrainthefilm.com/

Have you ever recommended Google Books (or the DPLA / Europeana) to a library user when you can’t access a text, but it has been scanned online? What do you make of the ethical questions behind the mass digitisation of works? Do the projects’ usefulness outweigh the potential for copyright infringements?

If you have any topics you would like me to look into for my next update, please let me know.

Sam Wiggins
SLA Legal Division Ethics Ambassador

Hi, I am Anneli Sarkanen, your new SLA Legal Division International Relations Committee Chair. I am an Information Officer at Field Fisher Waterhouse LLP in London. I wish to thank my predecessor Sara Batts, who was chair of this committee in 2012.

This month saw the start of the new lunar year and the Year of the Snake, with millions of people across Asia celebrating with firework displays and family gatherings.

It seems predictions for the year can be elusive and the last two snake years (2001 and 1989) have seen major events take place in the world. To help with any uncertainty this year may bring, the SLA Legal Division International Relations Committee has put together a list of resources to make researching Chinese law less haphazard.

This is brought to you with great thanks to our Legal Division colleague Dave Lyons, who is working as an academic librarian for the Beijing Centre for Chinese Studies.

EN = English language site; ZH = Chinese.

Laws & Regulations:

AsianLII: http://www.asianlii.org/cn/legis/cen/laws/ EN

Laws of the People’s Republic of China. This database contains selected Chinese legislation and related documents that have been translated into English. It includes: laws, regulations, pronouncements, resolutions, notices, measures, rules, decisions, decrees, principles, provisions, announcements, procedures, official replies and circulars (in interim, current and/or planned versions). Some warning: All translations are unofficial and it says it was last updated in March 2008.

Hong Kong Legal Information Institute: http://www.hklii.hk/eng/databases.html EN

HKLII is a free, independent, non-profit internet facility providing access to legal information relating to Hong Kong, including cases and legislative materials.

ChinaLaw: http://www.chinalaw.gov.cn/article/english/# EN

The official English page of the Legislative Affairs Office, but the translation quality is a bit suspect and more importantly the site has not been updated since 2007. The Chinese version (http://www.chinalaw.gov.cn/ ZH), however, is up-to-date.

China Law Translate: http://chinalawtranslate.com/ EN

This website was conceived by Jeremy Daum, a research fellow at the Yale-China Law Center and is a crowd-sourcing project to provide translations of Chinese legislation into English and vice versa. The site has yet to really get going but is an interesting concept. Naturally, as it is a wiki-style project, there is no note about the quality of the translation.

en.pkulaw.com http://en.pkulaw.cn/ EN

This website comes from Chinalawinfo Co, an provider of legal information, established by Peking University on the basis of its Legal Information Center. Access to English-language versions of “all the relevant documents for your legal needs in China”. There are notes and links in the Chinese text, but only English translations are provided for the main contents, not the notes. Contains laws and regulations (all laws adopted by the National People’s Congress from 1949 to present), case law database of typical judicial decisions approved and published by the Supreme People’s Court or the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, Tax treaties, Gazettes (title index only) and legal news. Subscription required for access to certain content.

Law Lib: http://www.law-lib.com/law/ ZH

Donald Clarke of George Washington University Law School says “This is a quite comprehensive free database of Chinese laws and regulations. It includes a great deal of local legislation, departmental regulations, and Supreme People’s Court interpretations. The main drawback is that it is not full-text-searchable; you can search by terms in the title or the issuing body. A nice feature is that you can separate central from local legislation in your results.”

China Law Reference Service: http://www.clrsonline.com/ EN

According to NYU Law Library, “Chinese legal materials in English at Baker & McKenzie. It is more a digest than a full-text database. CLRS contains news on the latest PRC regulations relevant to business, an advanced search facility that allows searching by keyword, year, category, region and translation.” Subscription required.

China Law & Practice: http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?RQT=318&VName=PQD&clientid=9269&pmid=52143 EN

NYU Law says: “The printed publication is known as “Asia Law and Practice”. Publishes news, a law digest, business law bulletins, archives, and lists of events.” Subscription required.

Ceilaw: http://www.ceilaw.com.cn/ ZH

NYU Law says: “A fee-based service in the vernacular provided by the State Info Center, a governmental agency.”

Research Guides & Online Resource Lists:

Internet Chinese Legal Research Center: http://law.wustl.edu/chinalaw/ EN/ZH

Wei Luo’s guide of online law resources for PRC, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.

Library of Congress: http://www.loc.gov/law/help/guide/nations/china.php EN

The Library of Congress has some helpful links, including:

• Donald Clarke’s list of online resources, including LawInfoChina, Law-Lib.com, and other more general resources: http://docs.law.gwu.edu/facweb/dclarke/public/Chinese_Law_Resources.html EN
• A very helpful bilingual guide to the government’s departments, structure, and personnel. Maintained by the Chinese government: http://www.prcgov.org/ EN/ZH

Anneli Sarkanen
SLA Legal Division International Relations Committee

More and more of our collections, not to mention our budgets, consist of Online Resources. Here are a few tips to keep in mind when managing these valuable resources:

• Find out the terms of the license upfront: Is it a single user license or a five concurrent user license? Any restrictions by location? Copyright restrictions? Redistribution restrictions?
• Weigh the cost of multiple individual licenses versus a firmwide license.
• Try to negotiate with the vendors, to see if they will come down from their initial price quotes.
• If you are opting for a firmwide license, consider getting IP Authentication, so your users will not have to enter logon information when accessing within your network.
• Users may not be able to access IP Authenticated resources if they are using a device that is outside of the network – have the vendor provide you with firmwide logon information for those situations.
• Keep a list of all your online resources that use IP Authentication, along with contact information – If the IP Authentication addresses change, use the list to notify all the vendors of the changes.
• If you have multiple single-user licenses, have the vendor provide you with the logon information for each user.
• Make sure you know how to add and delete users for each resource.
• If the service doesn’t have a management tool for the logon information, keep the information in your own database or spreadsheet – users will come to you if they forget or lose their logon information.
• Try to get the vendors to provide you with meaningful usage statistics – there are not a lot of other ways to determine whether the resource is being used.

A Few Definitions

• Concurrent user – a license that allows multiple users to access the resource, but only one user at any given time.
• Redistribution restrictions – can you forward on an article from an online resource to someone within your organization or to someone outside your organization, such as a client?
• Logon information – usually consisting of a logon/username and a password.
• IP Authentication – way to provide secure access to online content by filtering, based on certain criteria, such as an IP address. There is no need for users to enter logon information.

Joan Ogden
SLA Legal Division Mentoring Committee Chair