Licensing MS Encarta Online Deluxe Encyclopedia

[Tim Kambitsch]

Have anyone been successful in licensing the MS Encarta Online Deluxe
Encyclopedia for with an institutional or simultaneous user license?
As a Gate Library Foundation Grant recipient, we were given forty free
licenses to the Encarta CD-ROM.  However, loading CD-ROM data onto hard
disks  is soooo 20th-century.   I would much rather pay a licensing fee
for the web-based version and make it available on all 400 of the
library's PCs.

I've searched encarta.msn.com and have made about 10 different phone
calls to Microsoft.  I've not been able to find anyone who can talk
about things such as using IP authentication instead of unique usernames
and passwords; avoiding cookies; remote access rights and all the other
things one normally discusses with data providers.

All I've found is that I can order it in volume for $11.00 per machine
per year <http://www.fastrack.com>.  Even at $4400.00/yr., the product
is affordable, but I'd like to get some answers before committing to the
product.

If anyone has a contact at Microsoft, please let me know.

Tim