It has been many years since I got a notice like that from a database vendor. The vendor had actually gone ahead and cut off access at a time when a large chemistry class was trying to do an assignment that involved heavy use of historical chemistry journals. I learned that if you know in advance that a class is going to put heavy use on a specific resource, you can give the vendor a heads-up to avoid trouble, and, in some case, they will even allow a very short-term unlimited access for resources with limited simultaneous users. We have used that on occasion – but it does require that the faculty let you know in advance when their students are going to be hitting a resource really hard, and it has to be a very limited time period, like 24 hours.
Karin
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Karin Wikoff
Electronic and Technical Services Librarian
Ithaca College Library
953 Danby Rd
Ithaca, NY 14850
Phone: 1-607-274-1364
Fax: 1-607-274-1539
From: "Ms. Narda Tafuri" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2018 13:30:29 +0000
Dear colleagues,
We recently were contacted and warned by ProQuest Technical Support due to “excessive usage.” This turned out to be legitimate usage by overzealous students working on a class assignment. Coincidently, I was just sent a new “overarching” ProQuest license to sign. Our license indicates that users are permitted to download or print “reasonable” amounts of material. The new license contains a new section with a list of Restrictions.
I am wondering if others are also experiencing this type of thing (excessive usage claims) coming from ProQuest and a tightening of license terms regarding usage?
Thank you to anyone who is willing to share their recent experience with this.
Best,
Narda
Narda Tafuri
Associate Professor
Coordinator of Technical Services/Acquisitions Librarian
University of Scranton
Weinberg Memorial Library
800 Linden St.
Scranton, PA 18510
Voice: (570) 941-7811
Fax: (570) 941-7809