Critique du Library Journal
Bielefield and Cheeseman, respectively a lawyer and a law librarian, have been writing together about library legal issues for several years. This new book is largely an elaboration of the pages pertaining to licensing in their Technology & Copyright Law (Professional Media, LJ 5/1/97). Licenses are contractsÄthe proverbial fine printÄthat software and database vendors typically issue in order to regulate their customers' access to and use of their products. This expanded treatment provides the opportunity in Part 1 for a detailed analysis of contract elements and the language of specific license clauses. Part 2 deals with the practical matters of negotiating and accepting a licensing agreement. While the chapter on negotiation is somewhat cursory, overall the book familiarizes the reader with many of the advantages and pitfalls of contract language for libraries. The appendixes include a checklist for evaluating licenses (similar but not identical to the checklist in the previous book), excerpts from the federal Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, and a statement of guidelines for academic library acquisition of electronic information. A glossary defines many of the terms used throughout the main body of the text, although, curiously, "merchantability" is broached in the text but not defined in the glossary, and the discussion of parol evidence appears exclusively in the glossary. Recommended for all staff responsible for the purchase of electronic resources.ÄDean C. Rowan, Whittier P.L.., CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.