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Summary

Molly Rainard is an academic librarian & licensing professional, and can usually found battling the twin tentacles of surveillance and profiteering via redlines and legal terms of art. Her library acquisitions approach brings equal parts creativity and determination to the process of securing a fair deal for academic resources on behalf of libraries.

She co-leads SPARC's Privacy & Surveillance Contract Language Working Group, participated in the development of the ONEAL Project and the Library Partnership Rating, served for many years on the Kraemer Copyright Conference Planning Committee, and was a founding member of Project SILLVR (Streaming Interlibrary Loan Video Resources).

Molly has served the community of Auraria Library, the only tri-institutional academic library in the U.S., for almost a decade, a diverse and flourishing community whose students and researchers are her primary motivation to do this work.

Work experience

Licensing & Acquisitions Manager

Jul. 2023present
Auraria Library, Denver, CO USA

Responsible for overseeing review, negotiation, maintenance, and strategy of the library's e-resource license agreements in alignment with the library's mission, vision, and values.

  • Became principal contract negotiator and primary liaison with University Procurement Services Center on behalf of Auraria Library.
  • Oversees the library's licensing processes & procedures, serves as liaison to university counsel, and directly negotiates all library licenses.
  • Negotiated several high-value contracts that came up for renewal. Despite difficult negotiations, secured a number of important licensing terms in these contracts, such as ADA compliance, patron privacy, and fair use.
  • Orchestrated system-wide deals at a tri-institutional campus, working to meet the needs of 4-9 different academic libraries and their unique student and faculty populations in any given deal.
  • Drafted and presented Resolution on Library Licensing Priorities and Principles to UC Denver Faculty Senate, where it was approved and adopted.
  • Created tracking system for contract negotiations, with the goal of identifying outdated or unacceptable license terms that need to be renegotiated, as well as anticipating tricky license negotiations several months in advance.

Subscription & Purchasing Manager

Nov. 2016Jul. 2022
Auraria Library, Denver, CO USA

Brought on in newly-created role to review and redesign Auraria Library's licensing processes and procedures, as well as to represent Auraria Library on CU System acquisitions team.

  • Created an Auraria Model License, and later created a companion model license for use in CU System negotiations. My model license terms were subsequently adopted across the CU System.
  • Conducted usability review and spearheaded subsequent improvement of licensing module of
    Electronic Resources Management (ERM) system. Led the effort to investigate all potential ERM
    solutions for storing license terms.
  • Worked as a part of the initial team that developed Project SILLVR (Streaming Interlibrary Loan
    Video Resources). My research on the history of copyright and ILL was used to educate vendors
    who questioned the legal obstacles to the SILLVR program.
  • Hired, trained, and oversaw work of Firm Order Acquisitions Specialist. Provided direction in
    investigating alternative purchasing options to maximize the library's purchasing power.

Researcher & Teaching Assistant

Sept. 2022Sept. 2023
Copyrightlaws.com

Served as Teaching Assistant in new course offering on managing copyright issues in publishing.

  • Gave students guidance on strategic application of Fair Use Doctrine.
  • Researched and answered copyright questions posed by students in publishing course.
  • Developed a “tips & feedback” module to share with future students of Licensing Digital Content
    course.

Acquisitions Assistant

Dec. 2015Nov. 2016
Auraria Library, Denver, CO USA

Graduate Student Assistant assigned to focus on maintenance and upkeep of library's license agreements.

  • Orchestrated the reorganization of Auraria’s license and subscription agreements with more
    than 200 vendors.
  • Developed a set of instructions and best practices pertaining to the future organization and
    upkeep of the library’s license agreements.
  • Reviewed all license agreements for resources that allow alumni access, and worked with
    Associate Director to make these resources available to alumni.

Copy Cataloger

Mar. 2016Nov. 2016
Anderson Academic Commons, University of Denver

Graduate student assistant assigned to copy cataloging special projects.

  • Conducted specialized cataloging projects, such as correcting misplaced diacritics in foreign
    records, updating authority records, and converting AACR2 records to RDA.
  • Assisted cataloging department in transition from Sierra to Alma Integrated Library System. 
  • Cataloged and processed rare archival and art books, and performed gift book processing and
    assessment.

Education

Master of Library & Information Science

20152017
University of Denver

BA, Spanish Language and Literature

20092013
University of Colorado Boulder

Service

Contract Language Working Group, Privacy & Surveillance Community of Practice

Oct. 2022present
SPARC

Provides direction to the Working Group in determining best practices and new ideas in privacy contract language and patron privacy protection in libraries. Leading pilot of newly developed privacy protection language and corresponding explainer document.

Tri-Institutional Accessibility Committee

Aug. 2022present
Auraria Campus

Led special project to audit VPATs of library resources; brought perspective of contractual language to dealing with accessibility issues that arose to further understand accessibility protections needed, in addition to introducing the possibility of pursuing remedies with vendors.

CU Libraries Electronic Resources Team (CLERT)

Dec. 2016present
CU System

Served as Chair in 2021 and 2024; worked to orchestrate joint deals; created shared licensing documents, workflows, and procedures which took into account each institution’s individual needs and priorities.

Selected Presentations & Publications

Rainard, M., Bilic-Merdes., M., Hervé Mboa Nkoudou, T., Salo, D. (June 2024). Knowledge sharing on privacy & surveillance: Auraria Library's experience with cancelling on principle. Invited panelist in workshop series convened by BOAI & SPARC.

Gibney, M., Rainard, M. (May 2024). They Say ‘We Value Your Privacy’, But Do They?: A Privacy and Surveillance Community of Practice Speaks Out. Acquisitions Institute at Timberline Lodge 2024.

DiVittorio, K., Gaddis, P., Browning., Rainard, M., Brammer, C. (2020). SILLVR: Streaming Interlibrary Loan Video Resources. Collaborative Librarianship: Vol. 11 : Iss. 4, Article 8.

Rainard, M. (June 2019). Overcoming Copyright Issues with Changing Formats: Streaming Video &
Interlibrary Loan. Kraemer Copyright Conference 2019.

Paulson, K., Rainard, M., Harris, S., Shipman, H., Howlett, J. (November 2018). Authentication, Identity
Management, Privacy and Personalisation: How can libraries strike the right balance and avoid the growing dystopian dangers? Charleston Library Conference 2018.

Rainard, M. (June 2018). Connecting Departments through License Review. Atlanta, GA: North American Serials Interest Group (NASIG) Conference 2018.

Course Certifications

Creative Commons Certificate for Academic Librarians

Apr. 2024
Creative Commons

Managing Copyright Issues in Publishing

Nov. 2022
Copyrightlaws.com

Certificate in Licensing Digital Content

May 2022
Copyrightlaws.com

Privacy, Libraries, Patrons, and the Law

May 2019
American Library Association