February 2010- Access to IReL funded e-resources

Update

ALL of the IReL agreements expired on December 31st and most of the publishers/vendors provided us with informal extensions of contract (i.e. access to the resources) pending negotiations of new contracts.

Notice of the allocation of IReL funding was received from the HEA a number of days ago (end of January) allowing negotiations of IReL subscriptions to commence. As around 100 separate agreements must be negotiated, it is unlikely that agreements will be finalised in all cases before the end of the informal extensions. As a result, there will be interruptions in accessing IReL journals and databases. The Library regrets any such loss of access and every effort is being made by the negotiating agents, the IReL office and the IReL Steering group to expedite this process.

In the meantime, it is not possible to supply a list of resources where grace periods have expired as we don't know which ones are affected until we lose access. Catalogue records have not been amended yet to reflect the resources’ changes of status. We will update you if this happens.

If you become aware of loss of access to a resource it is important that you inform Arlene (ccing Clíona)

At the moment we know that the grace periods for the following have expired
BMJ journals
Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy

The IReL office is investigating if these can be 'switched on' while negotiations are ongoing.
Please continue to contact Arlene/Clíona if you have any queries.