libraries and licensing of personal database subscriptions

[Liblicense-L Listowner <liblicen@pantheon.yale.edu>]

Imagine this situation:

1.  Publisher XXX allows only individual/personal licenses to its
specialized database (these are not journal articles); no institutional
site licenses are permitted.

2.  Individual (a biomed researcher) wants a subscription aka license but
doesn't wish to license and pay for it -- believes the institution (aka
library) should do so.

Question to readers of this list:  What's the appropriate action for the
library to take?  Buy and manage personal licenses (as an appropriate role
for said library); or not (publisher does not want library as customer;
sets precedents that cannot be sustained for other researchers and
resources).

Your thoughts would be welcomed.  Ann Okerson/Yale Library
ann.okerson@yale.edu