The International Coalition of Library Consortia (ICOLC) recently issued a "Statement on Current Perpspectives and Preferred Practices for the Selection and Purchase of Electronic Information." MCB has the following response which it hopes will go som e way to meeting the expectations of the recommended standards outlined by ICOLC.

Increasing expectations and stable budgets. MCB provides options for consortia based on their electronic needs. Varying models are applied to fulfill the respective institutional requirements and operate a flexible and easy to understand license.

Fair Use. MCB does not seek to discontinue the well-established principle of fair use and has no reason to believe that the electronic environment will cause material or undue harm to publishers.

MCB's licence allows consortium members to make interlibrary loans by way of paper or electronic copies, subject to the limitation imposed on interlibrary loans of paper, provided that the provision of sections 37-44 (inclusive) of the Copyright an d Designs and Patents Act of 1988 and section 108 of the United States Copyright Act and the guidelines developed by the National Commission on New Technological Uses of Copyrighted Works shall apply.

MCB continues to permit up to 25 copies per article to be made for paper publications held within institutional libraries.

MBC has recently launched its Authors' Charter [see below], which sets out the benefits to authors of publishing in MCB's publications and the service levels thaty can expect to receive throughout the publication process. It also serves to allay f ears that assignment of copyright of papers to MCB restricts an author's rights to reuse or control their intellectual property. The Charter makes this explicit and details the additional rights management services MCB provide to ensure wider, internatio nal dissemination of their work.

Archiving of Information. Whilst MCB has not resolved the archiving issues, its consortia license does permit archival information for the subscription period to be retained either through the provision file data or through permanent access to its archival CD ROM.

MCB provides access to a full text archive from 1994 and an abstract archive from 1989 to 1993.

Pricing strategies. Pricing models are flexible and recognise the need by institutions for resource sharing through collective purchasing; for transition from print to electronics; electronics only and retention of print. MCB's licence prov ides for unlimited users, resulting in a reduction per use or unit cost of information.

Three year agreements permit MCB to offer no price increase in year 1 and capped price increases for years 2 and 3 of 5 per cent plus UK retail price index.

Options to purchase electronic-only products provide a cost-effective approach for those institutions that wish to divest themselves of the paper products.

Measures of effectiveness. MCB has recently conducted a survey via its LibraryLink forum on provision of statistics for electronic resources. This information will be

shared with institutional libraries and publishers, so effective data can be collected

and evaluations on use, made.

Contract negotiations. MCB's licence agreement was developed with the intention to fully support and conform to the Principles for Licensing Electronic Resources

as developed by the American Association of Law Libraries, the American Library Association, the Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries, the Association of Research Libraries, the Medical Libraries Association and the Special Libraries Assoc iation.

Terms and conditions are negotiable. MCB has made every endeavour to provide an easy to read and self-explanatory licence. Feedback to date suggests that terms and conditions are favourable and conform to institutional library requirements. Terms are c onfidential to the consortia, allowing both publisher and institution the flexibility to negotiate commensurate with the respective economic conditions.

Access, archiving, systems and licenses. MCB will use best endeavours to ensure that

the electronic files are available before, or no later than, the print format. An archive in

perpetuity will be provided to those institutions purchasing content via licensing agreements.

Electronic data is currently available as PDFs, HTML and SGML tagged data.

Local data hosting is an option available to consortia.

MCB undertakes to continue to research and work in partnership with other agencies in order to maximize the benefits and opportunities afforded by new technology for information dissemination, security and protection.

Access is currently available through:

MCB's licence permits fair use of all information for non-commercial, educational, instructional and scientific purposes by authorised users, including walk-in users. It also includes electronic interlibrary loans for members and non-members . The license provides permission for offprints and reserve collections. Usage statistics will be provided as part of the licensing agreement.

Authentication. MCB utilises IP addressing, as supplied by the individual consortium member, or via user identification and password access. Where the institution chooses to use identification and password access, the individual institution is asked to take responsibility for their users to ensure access control on the campus. A combination of IP addressing and username and passwords is permissible.

MCB provides a global service and will visit consortia coordinators and the members of the consortia to discuss any group purchasing requirements and also to introduce the MCB licence EmeraldPlus.

Please feel free to contact any of the Publishing Solutions team members, details below:

Patrick Doogue is based in the south of England and is the Publishing Solutions Manager responsible for sales and solutions in Canada, Australia, Far East and Middle East.

Email: pdoogue@mcb.co.uk

Shelly Grimshaw is based at MCB UP Limited office in the UK and is the Publishing Solutions Manager responsible for sales and solutions in Europe (including the UK) and South Africa.

Tel: +44 1274 785108; Fax: +44 1274 785202;

Email: sgrimshaw@mcb.co.uk

Claire Ginn works from the USA office in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Claire is

responsible for sales and solutions in the North and South Americas.

Tel: 617 497 2175; Fax: 617 354 6875;

Email: claire.ginn@mcb-usa.com

Carol Robertson is based at the UK office and is an Account Manager, providing sales and subscription support for our Consortia customers.

Tel: +44 1274 785092; Fax: +44 1274 785200;

Email: crobertson@mcb.co.uk

Dominic Martinez also works from the UK office. Dominic heads the Technical Helpdesk and manages the technical aspects of consortial purchases.

Tel: +44 1274 785139; Fax: +44 1274 785200;

Email: dmartinez@mcb.co.uk

• An innovative publishing service which is timely, efficient, responsive and courteous
• Quality peer reviewed journals with editorial teams of distinction
• Immediate acknowledgement of receipt of your manuscripts at MCB and a named individual to keep you informed of publication details
• Complimentary copies of the journal in which your work appears
• An Editorial and Production policy which encourages accuracy and reduces submission to publication times
• Online resources, forums and conferences to assist you with your research
• Responsible rights management to promote and safeguard the integrity of your work, encourage citation and wider dissemination
• Liberal reproduction rights and "Premium" permissions service for yourself and subscribing organizations to serve the interests and needs of the scholarly community
• Author royalties for reprints/ reproduction in excess of fair dealing/ licence allowances
• Transaction reports to keep you informed of requests for your work
• Additional benefits of Literati Club membership
• Sponsorship of the Annual Awards for Excellence to reward outstanding scholarship