On behalf of member libraries CRL negotiates favorable terms for the purchase of, or subscription to, major electronic resources. This activity grew from the major cooperative collection development efforts in area studies and other realms that have long flourished under the CRL umbrella. 

Priorities

CRL collection strengths:   Mirroring longstanding CRL collecting strengths, CRL's licensing and acquisition activities focus on primary source content in electronic form, in particular: digitized newspapers and electronic news; historical archives; economic, demographic, and public opinion data; government and NGO-produced information; and other international content not readily available through mainstream channels.  CRL endeavors to avoid resources commonly offered by other major U.S. and Canadian consortia.   

Research topics of interest:   CRL also pursues other types of materials and topics identified as priorities by the CRL community.

Selection Process

Proposal sources

• CRL invites nominations throughout the year, using the Electronic Resource Nomination Form.
• Proposals are generated by specialized CRL interest groups, including Global Resources programs such as CIFNAL and GNARP, the World Newspaper Archive Advisory Committee, and the Undergraduate Research Working Group.
• Staff at CRL and CRL libraries identify new priority resources from publishers’ offerings.
• CRL and partner organizations target major collections for digitization (World Newspaper Archive, American Periodicals from CRL, Law Library Microform Consortium). 

Assessment tools

• Reviews are posted in CRL’s Global Resources Forum web pages, evaluating the scope and nature of the database content, interface functions, and licensing terms.
• Comments are solicited from CRL libraries and continually added to the reviews.

Offers

• Offers provided at intervals throughout the year are accessible through member login.
• Digitized CRL legacy collections are offered upon release through partners.

For more information on the licensing process please contact Mary Wilke, CRL Member Liaison & Outreach Services Director.