Alliance licences and national licences

The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation, DFG) finances the purchase of licences for electronic media in part or in whole in the context of a funding initiative for the transregional supply of literature. The aim is to ensure the lasting improvement of the supply of German higher education institutions, research facilities and scientific libraries with electronic specialist information.

TIB is one of eight libraries that negotiate alliance licences and national licences with publishing companies and other information providers, ensuring the provision of media.

Alliance licences

The "alliance licence" licencing model was developed within the framework of the Priority Initiative “Digital Information” of the Alliance of Science Organisations in Germany, and has been in use since 2011. They are national opt-in consortia that are funded in part by the DFG. This means that higher education institutions and non-university research facilities actively decide to participate in the relevant consortium, and have to bear some of the cost themselves. The funding is subject to strict conditions concerning the professional significance, the technical provision, the price/performance ratio and the rights of use granted.

How can you access alliance licences?

Libraries that are interested in participating in a certain alliance licence must contact the relevant chief negotiator.

Current alliance licences

Current ongoing alliance licences with DFG support for which TIB is the institution conducting the negotiations:

2015-2017

• SPIE Digital Library

2017-2019

• Scientific.Net: Materials Science and Engineering / Trans Tech Publications
  
  The backfiles are available under a national licence, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). TIB has negotiated a so-called “moving wall” for the licence period from 2017 to 2019, which the library is also financing entirely in its capacity as German National Library of Science and Technology. In this way, the content of the database is freely accessible to all scientific institutions and interested private individuals after a one-year period.
  
  

Mainly so-called "Classics" national licences were funded between 2004 and 2010. These are aimed at the temporally unlimited use of digital publications. The DFG covered the entire costs of purchasing national licences.

How can you access national licences?

After registration, all eligible institutions as well as private individuals can access items under national licence. You can register for access as an institution or private individual at www.nationallizenzen.de, where you will also find an overview of all of the products available under national licences.