PDA: E-Resources Learning Series: Addressing Accessibility in E-Resources Licensing

SCELC partners with peer library consortia around the country to form the Professional Development Alliance (PDA)! The PDA is dedicated to sharing our professional development opportunities with other alliance members. This new initiative multiplies the number and variety of online professional development opportunities available to the member libraries of each participating consortium. PDA webinars are freely available to librarians and staff at all SCELC Member and Affiliate Institutions.

Session Details:

How do you make sure accessibility is addressed in your e-resources offerings? You write it into your library’s license agreements! But licensing can be very complicated and vague, which is why many libraries don’t know what to include or to ask for. We’ll talk briefly about why accessibility is important, but will mostly focus on what we should be expecting from vendors to make our e-resources accessible and keep vendors accountable.

Jenny Taylor is CARLI’s associate director of e-resources and manages the consortium’s brokering program. Accessibility has long been an important issue for her, as disability has affected many people in her life. She has worked with various stakeholders to make sure CARLI’s e-resources contracts have strong accessibility language and helps libraries understand what they can do to help patrons access resources based on varying needs.