I don't know why Connie was asking about this, but I know of at least one database provider that does produce an "alumni version" of a few databases.  And it's for the very reason Mitch mentions -- primary publishers don't want libraries to provide licensed databases/full text to EVERYone.  (They hope that successful alumni will buy their own subscriptons to their journals/magazines...)

I know that in some cases, the alumni office or development office pays for the alumni version of databases, not the library.

Katy G.

Katy Ginanni
E-Access and Serials Librarian
Coates Library, Trinity University
San Antonio, TX 78212-7200
210-999-7613 ph.
210-999-8182 fax
katy.ginanni@trinity.edu

"We need magic, and bliss, and power, myth, and celebration and religion in our lives, and music is a good way to encapsulate a lot of it." --Jerome John Garcia, 8/1/42-8/9/95

________________________________

From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum on behalf of Mitch Turitz
Sent: Thu 8/14/2008 6:11 PM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: Re: [SERIALST] Alumni access question

Connie,

   We (San Francisco State University) do not offer online access to
alumni from off-campus.  Anyone is free to come into our library and
use the databases inside the library. That was already taken into
account when we planned for the online access in our library. Our
licenses are based on the number of users we have, and if we opened
the access to alumni, you can be sure the vendors would want more $
for increasing our potential user base.  And we are not even talking
about the restrictions of some vendors as to how far away a user can
be from the campus to access the database.  That is not a limitation
of hardware or software but of some vendors' imagination.

   My recommendation would be to direct the alumni to a public library
to give him/her access to their databases.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date:    Tue, 12 Aug 2008 13:39:02 -0500
From:    Connie Foster <connie.foster@WKU.EDU>
Subject: Alumni access question

Do any of you license databases to include alumni, particularly
internationally based alums?
connie foster

--
  _^_                                                 _^_
(___)-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- ( ___ )
|   |                                               |   |
|   |     Mitch Turitz, Serials Librarian           |   |
|   |     San Francisco State University Library    |   |
|   |     voice: (415) 338-7883                     |   |
|   |                                               |   |
(___)-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-==- ( ___ )
   V                                                   V
"The most important resource in any library goes home at night."

-Tom Galante, at the "Transforming Your Staff" session during
ALA annual, June 2007, Washington, D.C.