Centrally Managed Licenses for Electronic Resources in a Network Zone
In a collaborative network, you can negotiate licenses with vendors on behalf of multiple member institutions. You can then:
- Acquire resources on behalf of all institutions using a license, enabling each institution to pay for the resources associated with that license as required.
And/Or - Enable each member institution to acquire its own resources using a negotiated license.
Both of these scenarios can exist simultaneously.
In the first scenario, you add a license called a negotiation license. The Network Zone links the relevant resources to the license, enabling member institutions to order them under this license. Unlike other licenses entered into Alma that are used only for informational purposes, a negotiation license serves a functional effect in Alma. The resource must be activated in the Network Zone, and the member institution's license period must be current in the license.
For more information about ordering electronic resources negotiated and managed by the center office in the Network Zone, see the Order E-Resources Negotiated and Managed in the NZ by a Member video (9:35 mins).
Negotiation licenses managed by the Network Zone also may record price per year for multiyear licenses to allow for a price increase between years. A negotiation license with start and end dates spanning more than one year will display the Price per year and Price increase fields. When a PO line is created for a resource and links to a multiyear license in the Network Zone, the price of the PO line will be updated by the price per year for the member institution. When the PO line is renewed, the fund will be checked to verify that there is enough money for the renewal based on the Price per year and Price increase field. If the fund does not have enough, the renewal will fail. If the Price per year and Price increase fields are left empty, the standard functionality will apply.
In the second scenario, the license is a centrally managed license, created in the Network Zone and pushed to the member institutions, like other centrally-managed Network Zone information. You can push a regular license or a negotiation license this way (a negotiation license becomes a standard license in the member institution). In this scenario, each member institution can purchase resources and attach them to their local copy of the license.
In a member institution, a centrally managed license is noted by a checkmark in the Shared column in the Licenses and Amendments page.
Adding a Negotiation License or a Centrally Managed License
The following role can add a negotiation license or a centrally managed license:
- License Manager (for the Network Zone)
To add a negotiated license:
- Log in to the Network Zone for your collaborative network.
- While adding a license (see Adding a License), the License type field appears in the Summary tab of the License Details page. To add a negotiation license, select Negotiation in this field. Note: You can select License to add a standard license, as usual.
License Details Page - Regardless of which license type you select in the previous step, optionally select Shared License to push the license to all member institutions, enabling each one to purchase resources and attach them to their local copy of the license.
- When you finish entering information, select Save. The license is saved and you are returned to the list of licenses. If you selected Shared License, the license is pushed to member institutions the next time that the Distribute Network Acquisition Changes to Members job runs. If you push a Negotiation type license this way, the license changes to type License in the member institution. To push the license manually, see Distributing Centrally Managed Licenses.
- For a Negotiation license:
- Select Edit in the row actions list to open the license. Select the Negotiation Details tab.
License Details Page - Negotiation Details Tab - On the Negotiation Details tab, select Add Member. The Summary page appears.
Summary Page - Enter a member institution and any additional details for the license.
If you are working with a multiyear license, Price per year and Price increase fields will be displayed in place of the Price field. For more information on multiyear licenses, see the top of this page.
- Select the content that is specific to this member.
- Select Next. Step 2 of the wizard appears.
Add Contact People - Enter contact details for the member and select Save. Adding a contact creates a contact user (see Managing Users).
- Select Save to save the license. To add additional contact people:
- On the Negotiation Details tab, edit the institution (select Edit in the row actions list).
- Select the Contact People tab.
Contact People Tab - Select Add Contact, enter the contact person information, and select Save.
- When you are done adding people, select Save to save the license.
- Select Edit in the row actions list to open the license. Select the Negotiation Details tab.
When editing a member institution, you can also add notes or attachments in the Notes or Attachments tabs of a Negotiation license, respectively. For more information on these tabs, see Common Alma Tabs.
Deleting Centrally Managed Licenses
If a shared license was distributed to members and was then deleted in in the network institution, it will be 'detached' from the network institution and will continue to be managed locally in the member institution. See also Managing Licenses and Amendments.
Distributing Centrally Managed Licenses
The following role can distribute licenses:
- Acquisitions Administrator
Centrally managed licenses are distributed automatically by the Distribute Network Acquisition Changes to Members job when they are created or updated. You can also manually distribute the license. You can select which information to distribute to member institutions. The license includes the Distribution check boxes. Summary and License Terms are shown but are sent by default and cannot be unselected. Notes and Attachments are optional selections.
Distribution for License Details
When Notes or Attachments information has been shared to the member institutions, if the Network Zone institution edits the Distribution fields and removes one or both options, the data that was previously copied to the member institution is retained.
For shared licenses, member institutions can view the license but not edit it.
To manually distribute the license:
- On the Licenses and Amendments page (Acquisitions > Acquisitions Infrastructure > Licenses), select Distribute to member in the row actions list. This option only appears on the Network Zone for centrally managed licenses that have an Active status. A list of member institutions appears.
Licenses and Amendments dialog box - Select the members to which the license should be distributed.
- Select Submit, and select Confirm in the confirmation dialog box. The Distribute network Acquisition changes to members job runs. For information about viewing the report, see Viewing Completed Jobs.
Note the following:
- If the license in the Network Zone does not have a vendor code in either the Licensor or Licensing agent field, the license is distributed.
- If the license in the Network Zone has a vendor code in either the Licensor or Licensing agent field, but the vendor is not distributed, the license is not distributed.
- If the license in the Network Zone has a vendor code in either the Licensor or Licensing agent field, and the vendor is distributed, the license is distributed as well.
- In order to publish a license-term value from the Network Zone to the Institution Zone, the license term must already exist in the Institution Zone. If it does not already exist, you must manually add it in the Institution Zone. When a license is distributed from the Network Zone to the Institution Zone, the Display to public values are not carried over with it – rather, the values that already exist within the Institution Zone are applied.
Linking an Electronic Resource to a Negotiation License
To link an electronic resource to a license, see Adding a Local Electronic Collection, Editing a Portfolio Using the Electronic Portfolio Editor, and Associating a License to a Portfolio.
Ordering a Centrally Managed Electronic Resource
The following roles can order electronic resources associated with a negotiation license:
- Inventory Operator or Manager (Institution Zone/Consortium Member)
If an activated electronic resource is managed by the Network Zone and associated with a negotiation license, and your institution is listed and currently active in the negotiation license, you can order the resource for your institution.
You can now place an order on electronic resources that are managed centrally in the Network Zone even if they do not have a license of type Negotiation.
The functionality can be divided between those orders of centrally managed electronic resources that have a license negotiation, and those that do not have a license negotiation.
Orders with a license negotiation
- If the license negotiation specifies that the resource is negotiated for the member, the order will be created in the Institution Zone with all the negotiation information.
- If a license negotiation exists for the resource, but the resource was not negotiated for the member:
- The user is prompted with the following message:
"Please note the following:
This electronic resource is part of a central license negotiation. Please note that your institution is not included in the central license negotiation. Are you sure you want to continue?" - The member can place an order, which is created in the Institution Zone and linked to the centrally managed resource. The member can then create a local license and associate it to a local order.
- The user is prompted with the following message:
Orders without a license negotiation
- If the resource is available for the member, as defined by the group configuration, it can be ordered with the Order action. The order is created locally and linked to the Network Zone resource.
- You can create a local license in the Institution Zone and associate it with the locally created order.
On the License Details page, in the Inventory tab, the Resources from the Network section shows electronic collections and portfolios. This section is available for orders with or without a license negotiation.
License Details Page - Inventory Tab
The local license can include terms of use that are viewable by the end user via the link resolver in the Primo View It tab. This action is available for orders with or without a license negotiation.
Electronic Portfolio from a Network Resource
Even if the resource is linked by a negotiation license in the Network Zone, the resource may not be available for the current institution if the institution is not part of the negotiation. In this case, it is still possible to order the resource from the Network tab.
To order a centrally negotiated electronic resource:
- Log in to Alma as a member institution of a consortium.
- Search for the electronic resource in the Network Zone (the Network tab). See Searching in Alma.
- Find the resource and select Order in the row actions list.
Your institution’s name and code appear in the Collection Available For filter and in the Available For field.The PO Line Owner and Type form appears. See Manually Creating a PO Line.
- Order the resource, as described in Manually Creating a PO Line. Alma creates a purchase order for the institution. This PO line is linked to the centrally managed inventory in the Network Zone. The Inventory tab of the Institution Zone PO line lists the Network Zone inventory to which the PO line is linked.