Electronic Resources licenses and their role in supporting the free access to information at universities libraries: a pilot study on universities libraries in Greater Cairo

Abstract

This study aims to identify the role of university libraries in negotiating with publishers about licenses for the use of information resources, whether subscriptions or open access, and shed light on the recent developments in the field of legal licenses for open digital content and the extent of validity of Creative Commons licenses in achieving a balance between the protection of authors' rights and users in the digital age, and submitting some proposals that help the existence of new legislations compatible with the requirements of dealing with the digital library and the Internet and protection of intellectual property rights, and to highlight the importance of raising awareness of the existence of this legislations and how to apply them and benefit from them.
The study depended on the field survey method to achieve its goals using a set of tools to collect data. The tools include a questionnaire, observation, and personal interview.