Reflection on PRM:

Reflection on PRM:

After Beth and Andy’s presentation I started to think about perpetual access management. There seems to be a considerable amount of motivation for an academic library to want perpetual access for their patrons and for the library itself. As we learned in class there seem to many pros and cons for a library to manage it on their own. However if a library is the one managing it do they also have to be concerned with digital rights management of that material as well? How would that be achieved? Could a library be sued if they allow someone access to information that wasn’t technically authorized user? After a brief internet search I couldn’t find any answers. However I did find a website for Springer which says they offer perpetual access without DRM. (http://www.springer.com/librarians/e-content/ebooks?SGWID=0-40791-0-0-0) It looks like perpetual access and DMR is an issue for some libraries.

 If I were the head of an academic library I would be cautious about handling my perpetual access management. I would think it would be better for a library to go through a third party even if it cost more. Hopefully any liability would fall on the third party and the library would be safe from any law suits concerning digital rights.