IFLA Licensing Principles (2001)

The worldwide marketplace for all types of electronic information resources is rapidly being developed as publishers and vendors who create electronic information seek to attract libraries of all types (public, academic, special, national) as their customers. Today, libraries around the world continue in their role as mediators between citizens, including those affiliated with specific institutions, and information and cultural expression - roles that persist even more energetically, it appears, for electronic information than for print. And, just as libraries advance the archiving and preservation of traditional media, so they are seeking ways to ensure that electronic resources will be archived and preserved to be accessible over a long period of time.