Chrissie's Muses

As I’m sure colleagues who are responsible for the JISC collections within their insitution are aware, there is an item in the Model Licence concerning a “Walk in User”.  The description of a Walk in User from the Guide to the Model Licence is below:

Any person who is NOT a current student, faculty member or employee of the institution, but who is permitted by the institution to access its secure network from computer terminals while the person is located physically within the library premises . This person is referred to as a Walk-in User because they can access the resource by ‘walking in’ to the library but are restricted to using it only within library premises.

However, this does create some issues with regards other licences that the institution holds e.g. JANET and Microsoft Select agreement.  See the email below concerning the use of JANET for Walk in Users not affiliated to any academic institution.

…the advice is that a Proxy Licence is NOT required so long as the visitor is a member of or in some way affiliated to an academic organisation.However, if JANET is being used by a member of the general public then a Proxy Licence is required.

See Clause 3 and Explanatory Note 3 of the JANET Connection Policy – http://www.ja.net/services/publications/policy/connection-policy.html

Recommendations

• if you allow access to your licensed JISC Collections to members of the general public (i.e. not members of any other academic organisation) then you must ensure that your institution holds a JANET proxy licence
• if you will be allowing members of the general public access to your computer network and/or stand alone PCs, you must ensure that your software licences permit this type of use