One of the activity areas of Denmark’s Electronic Research Library is called Digital resources. It takes in the DEF licenses where efforts to create access to digital information resources started in 1998.

DEF’s primary users are students, teachers and researchers at Danish universities and research institutions. Secondary users are i.a. public library users.

What is a DEF license?
A DEF license is an agreement on access to electronic information resources, signed by DEF on behalf of a number of libraries. The fundamental characteristics of a DEF license are:

• Broad library interest
• Alternatively other political interest for DEF (e.g. co-operation on digitisation)
• Possibility of financial support from DEF
• DEF secretariat negotiates license agreement.

Who can join?
In principle all public Danish universities and research institutions can register for a DEF license. In certain cases county and/or public libraries and companies can register. Conditions as to who may participate will appear from the information on the individual licenses, see overview here.

How do I join?
If you are interested in joining, please contact the DEF secretariat, att: Anette Schneider (asc@bs.dk) or Ulla Kvist (ukv@bs.dk) with relevant information. The license pages will always tell you the kind of information which is needed in each case.

List of DEF licenses: http://www.deflink.dk/aktiviteter/lic_oversigt.asp