Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2001 09:33:56 -0800
From: Rick Anderson <rickand_at_unr.edu>
Subject: Responses re: vendor nondisclosure agreements
My thanks to all who responded to my query last week regarding vendor
nondisclosure agreements. To quickly recap, my question was spurred by the
fact that one of our jobbers requires us to sign a nondisclosure agreement
before being given a password to their online database; this is not a
content database as such, but a product database -- one which we would use
to identify and, if we wished, order materials. In my message to ACQNET I
expressed dubiousness about the necessity of such a measure and
unwillingness to go along with it, and asked whether others had encountered
NDAs like this one and what their responses had been. As promised, below is
the essence of the responses I received:
* Three respondents said that as state institutions, they were not permitted
to sign nondisclosure agreements; local law makes all documents created in
the course of their work publicly available.
* One respondent said that his institution signed an NDA like the one in
question, but amended the language to allow dsitribution of the protected
information within the institution.
* One respondent indicated that in her state, only trade secrets could be
protected by a nondisclosure agreement on the part of a state institution.
I didn't receive any responses from private universities, which presumably
would not be similarly limited by local law and could probably therefore
sign an NDA if they wished.
-------------
Rick Anderson
Electronic Resources/Serials Coordinator
The University Libraries
University of Nevada, Reno
1664 No. Virginia St.
Reno, NV 89557
PH (775) 784-6500 x273
FX (775) 784-1328
rickand_at_unr.edu
Received on Tue Jan 30 2001 - 12:50:04 EST