License agreements: General introduction
What is a library consortium?
A consortium is a community of parties working together to reach a shared goal or gain benefits for each participant. Sikt's consortia are a collaboration to purchase e-resources (mainly journals) for researchers and students in Norway.
The benefit of a consortium is that we jointly achieve better terms when negotiating with publishers than each institution would get on its own. This applies mainly to price and open access, but also to other terms such as electronic interlibrary loans, printing, and more. Another benefit is that expertise is built up that multiple institutions can draw on, especially around negotiations and concluding agreements. Central administration enables this kind of expertise-building. We also organize much of the agreement work — and not least, the payment.
Sikt License agreements and open access (LÅT)
Sikt's Section for open research and research information consists of License agreements and open access (LÅT), Research information (NVA), and Open research. We work to achieve as much open access to research literature as possible, including the role of national coordinator for open access.
LÅT negotiates and administers license agreements for electronic research resources on behalf of academic and research libraries in Norway. Negotiating agreements is defined by the Ministry of Education and Research as a public administration task. LÅT is therefore not a commercial provider.
Read more about the Norwegian national strategies, policy and guidelines.
Read more about negotiations on open access.
While LÅT administers licensed research-resource agreements, we also work to increase the number of articles published openly. The goal is to fully or partly convert license agreements into open-access agreements.
Who takes part in Sikt's agreements?
Sikt is a provider to the Norwegian knowledge sector. The institutions participating in the LÅT consortia come from the following sectors:
- universities and university colleges
- research institutes
- health trusts/hospitals
- museums
- public bodies
- public libraries
Our agreements are organized as so-called open consortia, which give institutions the opportunity to enter or exit an agreement at the start of each contract year, without their participation having any effect or consequences for the other participants.
Which agreements can the institutions join?
See the full overview: Våre avtaler (Norwegian).
Agreements involving elements of open access or funding schemes have their own websites in English: Agreements that include Open Access publishing
What about new agreements?
Sikt negotiates agreements requested by participants, or agreements that encourage increased open access — for example through funding schemes. We also consider other agreements of interest to the sector.
How do we get in touch with LÅT?
LÅT uses the shared address lisensavtaler@sikt.no for all inquiries. We hold webinars, announced in our news items, and we are present at Sikt's annual Bibsys conference. We will also be represented at international conferences and meetings when appropriate, annually at the UKSG Annual Conference and Exhibition.