Frequently Asked Questions - EIFL-Licensing

Through the EIFL-Licensing Programme, we negotiate licence agreements with publishers and vendors of commercial e-resources on behalf of library consortia (and their member libraries) in partner countries.

Through direct negotiations, we achieve free or highly discounted access to a wide range commercial e-resources, plus fair terms of use. 

In 2011, we enabled our partner libraries to save an estimated US$175 million in subscription fees, and we achieved an average discount of 97%. 

Our work also results in efficiency gains across the network - for example in terms of time and legal fees.

Other key priorities for the EIFL-Licensing Programme include:

• Working with partner library consortia to promote greater awareness, participation and usage of e-resources across the EIFL network through a wide range of initiatives.
• Building local capacity in the licensing and management of e-resources.
• Developing effective tools to support advocacy.

We have negotiated agreements with over 20 vendors for more than 50 commercial e-resources.

Our portfolio of licensed resources covers a comprehensive range of subject areas and types of content  – for example e-journal and e-book collections, and reference and bibliographic databases.

EIFL-negotiated agreements are open to members of our partner library consortia in eligible countries.

The catalogue page for each licensed resource (click here for a list) indicates the list of eligible countries i.e. those that are covered by the agreement.

A list of licensed resources available to each of our partner library consortia will be available soon. 

If your institution is a member of the EIFL-partner library consortium in your country AND your country is eligible for the resource of your choice, you should be able to subscribe. 

Please contact the EIFL-Licensing Coordinator in your country for further details.

If your institution is eligible to subscribe to a particular resource, please contact the EIFL-Licensing Coordinator in your country.

They will be able to help you through the subscription process.

Pricing is only available to EIFL-Licensing Coordinators.

If your institution is eligible to subscribe to a particular resource, please contact the EIFL-Licensing Coordinator in your country, and they will be able to advise you about pricing. 

Most vendors are pleased to offer 30-day free trials of their resources to institutions that are members of EIFL partner library consortia. 

If your institution is eligible to subscribe, and if you are interested in a free trial, please contact the EIFL-Licensing Coordinator in your country.

 See Model Licence FAQ.

See Access FAQ.

You can find out whether individual journals are included in collections available through EIFL-negotiated agreements here.

Access to commercial e-resources can only be granted via a secure route – ie via the IP address/es of a subscribing institution.  

In order to gain access to commercial e-resources, subscribing institutions must provide the static and external/public IP address of their secure network. 

Access is not available by username and password as these details can be easily shared, and the resources on offer through EIFL-Licensing have a very high commercial value.  

IP addresses are allocated to any device participating in a computer network – both private networks and the public internet.   

IP addresses can either be internal/private or external/public.  An external/public IP address is one that is accessible from the internet.  An internal/private IP address is one that is accessible only from the internal institutional network.

Only external/public IP addresses are suitable for providing institutional access to licensed commercial e-resources because they are the only ones that are accessible from the internet.

IP addresses are either static or dynamic.  A static IP address is one that is fixed and never changes.  Dynamic addresses are assigned every time users log on to the network or internet.

Only static IP addresses are suitable for providing institutional access to licensed commercial e-resources because they don't change.

 Find out more about IP addresses

We recommend that you ask your IT department to provide you with the external/public IP address/es of your institution's network.  

Please note that in order for your institution be able to subscribe to, and access, commercial e-resources, the IP address/es you provide must be external/public, static and only provide access to your institution’s secure network.

Please contact us at subscriptions [at] eifl.net if you have any questions.

In order to access commercial e-resources, subscribing institutions must provide vendors with their external/public IP address/es as these are used to access the internet.  

The most basic format includes a simple set of 4 blocks of numbers with a minimum of 0.0.0.0 and a maximum of 255.255.255.255 (although neither of these are valid for use for commercial e-resources).

A typical IP address would look like this: 122.140.201.66

IP addresses can also be shown as a range, for example:     122.140.201.66-144 or 122.140.201-205.* (* represents 0-255)

IP addresses can also be shown in CIDR format for example:

122.140.201.0/24 (this represents 122.140.201.*)

For many institutions, the external/public IP address is the address of the proxy server (see Wikipedia entry).

Individual computers which are part of an institutional network may have internal/private IP addresses linking them to the proxy server.  Internal/private IP addresses are not visible on the internet so cannot be used to gain access to commercial e-resources.

The following are examples of internal IP address ranges:

10.0.0.0 – 10.255.255.255 (CIDR = 10.0.0.0/8)

172.16.0.0 – 172.31.255.255 (CIDR = 172.16.0.0/12)

192.168.0.0 – 192.168.255.255 (CIDR = 192.168.0.0/16)

EIFL-licensed resources are only available to members of our partner library consortia in eligible countries (i.e. ones covered by agreements for individual resources).

If your institution wishes to take part in an agreement, you should contact the EIFL-Licensing Coordinator in your country. They will be able to help you through the process.

However, in general terms, the standard subscription process is as follows. (Please note that it may be slightly different in some cases.)

Eligible institutions need to:

1. Review the terms of the relevant licence. The licence is for reference only and does not need to be signed.

2. Sign the licence acceptance form.

3. Send the signed licence acceptance form either to the EIFL-Licensing Coordinator or to the person/address listed on the form.

4. Arrange payment (if applicable).

Once payment has been received (if applicable), vendors will notify subscribing institutions/EIFL-Licensing Coordinators (as appropriate) by email when access has been set up.  

We recommend that institutions save this notification email as it will contain important information about access, how to use the resource, how to change account details (for example IP addresses), and how to generate usage reports.

The EIFL Model Licences are licences drafted by EIFL which contain more favourable provisions than any standard commercial licence for access and use of electronic journals and datasets. EIFL negotiates such licences with publishers on behalf of the EIFL members. The EIFL Model Licences contain provisions that allow students and staff to make effective use of online resources for learning, teaching and research.

Click the links below to view each Model Licence.  The terms and conditions governing who can use a resource, and how, are similar.

Model Licences (single product agreements):

• Consortium licence [PDF]
• Institution licence (paying countries) [PDF]
• Institution licence (free access countries) [PDF]

Model Licences (multi-product agreements):

• Consortium licence [PDF]
• Institution licence [PDF]

Files / Images: 

eifl_model_institution_licence_2010_single_product.pdf

eifl_model_institution_licence_2010_free_access_single_product.pdf

eifl_model_consortium_licence_2010_single_product.pdf

model_consortium_licence_2010_multi_product.pdf

model_institution_licence_2010_multi_product.pdf

It can be used by university, public, national, governmental libraries and research institutions within the countries of the EIFL members.

The Model Licences provide a consistent approach to access and use of resources to allow teachers, learners and researchers to use each resource to its fullest potential to support their activities. The EIFL Model Licences are drafted as an offer by the publisher to the consortia and/or individual institutions. The attraction of this is that the publisher does not have to sign the licences, only the consortia and the individual institutions have to complete the Acceptance of Licence Form and either fax, email or post this to the publisher.

Each Model Licence provides a starting point for negotiations with publishers. While every effort is made to retain all the clauses, occasionally amendments are made. However, this only occurs after consultation with a skilled legal counsel contracted by EIFL to ensure the interests of EIFL’s members are protected.

Although the terms and conditions from the Model Licences are invariably achieved, it is the responsibility of each institution to check the precise wording of the terms and conditions of each licence and if necessary to seek legal advice, before you sign an EIFL negotiated licence.

EIFL is not a party to the Model Licences. However, EIFL signs the Model Contract with each publisher to secure the prices negotiated for a specific resource and the use of the EIFL Model Licences.

Previously the Model Consortium Licence had two parts:

• The main agreement between the consortium and the publisher;
• A sub-licence between the consortium and a consortium member.

After consultation with the EIFL members and publishers it was felt that the sub-licence should be merged with the main agreement.

• What the resource can be used for;
• Who is authorised to use the resource;
• How it can be accessed;
• What authorised users and institutions can do with it;
• What users and institutions must not do with it;
• The responsibilities of the institution;

• Customer support for subscribing institutions and their authorised users;
• The provision of free electronic user documentation (for reproduction and circulation with appropriate acknowledgement);
• A warranty by the publisher that all intellectual property rights ("IPR") in the resources are either owned by or licensed to the publisher;
• An indemnity by the publisher to protect institutions if they are sued by a third party for IPR infringement for using the resource in accordance with the agreed terms and conditions in the Licence.

It also includes other terms and conditions in accordance with best practice for a licence of this nature such as the duration of the agreement, grounds for termination, acknowledgement of IPR, warranties and indemnities, Force Majeure and governing law.

The Model Institution Licence represents the agreement between an individual institution and a publisher. The agreement covers the pricing for the institution and the same terms and conditions of access and use of the resource as set out above for the Model Consortium Licence.

Under the EIFL models the resources can only be used for Educational Purposes. This means teaching and learning either face to face or distance learning, private study and research. The resource must not be used for any Commercial Use. This means use of the whole or parts of the resource with a view to a commercial gain.

The Licences refer to Authorised Users. These fall into two categories based on their relationship with an institution:

These are:

• Any person who is a current student or a current member of staff of the institution and who is permitted to access the Institution’s information services on and off site. This excludes staff and students of a partner institution.
• Any person who is NOT a current student or a current member of staff of the institution, but who is permitted by the institution to access its secure network from computer terminals while the person is located physically within the library premises. This person is referred to as a Walk-in User because they can access the resource by "walking in" to the library but are restricted to using it only within library premises.

The Model Licences allow the institution to provide 24/7 access for multiple users, simultaneously using secure access to any member of staff and students of the institution.

Walk-in Users cannot be given remote access. They can only use the resource while physically located within the library premises, using computer terminals on the secure network. This is because Walk-in Users are not members of the institution; consequently their conduct cannot be regulated while off the premises, making it impossible for the institution to ensure that the terms and conditions of an EIFL negotiated licence is met.

The Model Licences allows all students and staff to use parts of the resource for:

• Their own private study;

• Teaching and training staff and students whether on campus or not;
• Student course work (including project work and dissertations);
• Research activities;
• Presenting research professionally eg in a conference presentation, or in papers.

The institution is allowed to make a local cache copy. This is particularly helpful where staff wish to use a resource during a teaching session, and want to guarantee speedy and reliable access by using a local copy of the resource (rather than relying on access via the web). Access to the cached version must still be via a secure network and is subject to the same terms and conditions as any other use.

Staff, students and Walk-in Users can:

• Search the resource and look at their results on screen;
• Save portions of the resource electronically, these can be saved to a computer hard drive, floppy disk, CD-ROM, USB flash drive etc;
• Print out single copies of portions of the resource, for example journal articles, book chapters, search results etc.

Staff can "incorporate" parts of the resource in printed and electronic course packs, in teaching materials (printed and electronic),and use parts of the resource in Virtual Learning Environments providing it is appropriately acknowledged.

Teachers and lecturers are also allowed to integrate parts of the resource into traditional teaching materials such as reading lists and other handouts. It also means staff and students can ‘cut and paste’ from a range of resources into a single teaching resource or course assignment, as long as appropriate acknowledgment is made for each item (and the Licence for each resource contains the relevant terms and conditions).

Staff may reproduce extracts in a format that aids accessibility, for example Braille.

Any provision of course materials online must be through a secure network. You will need to check the licence agreement because in some cases it is necessary to delete electronic copies of teaching materials at the end of the licence period.

Students can cut and paste parts of the resource in printed or electronic form in projects, assignments, portfolios and in dissertations. Students are also permitted to make a copy of their assignments for their private use and library deposit. Students must include the details of the source, title listing and copyright owner in their coursework, assignments, portfolios, theses, etc.

Staff and students can search and look at their results on screen to support their study and research. They may also:

• Save extracts electronically to a computer hard drive, floppy disk, CD-ROM etc;
• Print out single copies of extracts from the resource, for example journal articles, book chapters, search results etc;
• Publicly display or present as part of their work at seminars, workshops or conferences.

• Inter library loan and electronic document delivery of a single copy provided that the electronic file is deleted after printing;
• Provide printed and electronic copies of parts of the resource at the request of staff and students;
• Download extracts from the resource for training and promotion;
• Make copies of training materials in print or electronic format.

• Make the resource available off-site to anyone other than staff and students;
• Remove or hide or change copyright notices or remove acknowledgements;

Note: When ‘cutting and pasting’ extracts from the resource, any form of acknowledgment associated with the item must be included (e.g. copyright caption with an image).

• Allow the resource to be viewed in any way other than on the institutions secure network;
• Use the resource for Commercial Use or for any purpose other than Educational Purposes;
• Display any part of the resource on a publicly accessible website or network.

All of these restrictions continue after the end of the licence agreement.

When an institution signs an EIFL negotiated Licence it agrees to:

• Issue passwords only to staff and students;
• Make staff and students aware that they cannot share their passwords with anyone else;
• Only allow staff, students or Walk-In users of the library access to the resource through a secure network;
• Make sure that staff, students and Walk-in Users are aware of what they are and aren’t allowed to do with the resource;
• Let the publisher know immediately if they are aware of unauthorised access or use of the resource. Also to take the appropriate steps to ensure unauthorised access or use is not repeated.

A breach of a Licence is a serious matter and can be grounds for termination of the agreement. This places the rights of other users in jeopardy.

EIFL negotiates to secure access after the expiry of an EIFL’s negotiated Licence. The EIFL's Model Licences include an obligation on the Publisher to provide the Institution (that has signed an EIFL negotiated Licence) with an archive of the full text of the resource, without further charge.

Perpetual access to the full text will be provided by the publisher either by continuing online access via the Publisher’s server or by supplying the electronic files to each subscribing Institution in an electronic medium mutually agreed between the parties. Institutions can network the archive within their institution at their own cost. Continuing archival access and use is subject to the terms and conditions of the expired Licence.

Sometimes EIFL’s negotiated licence will differ from the EIFL Model Licences. It is important to check each Licence that you sign, especially the permitted uses, restrictions and perpetual access provisions.

View the Model Consortium Licence;
View the Model Institution Licence;
View the Model Institution Licence (free access).

This guide should be used for information purposes only. It does not provide legal advice. Always check the relevant section of the institution licence that your institution has signed before you provide access or allow use of a resource and in doubt, please seek legal advice.