My FOI request to the University of Glasgow has left me speechless; They do not know anything about publishers or the licences they sign « petermr's blog

"I have have sent out ca 10 FOI requests to UK Russell Group Universities (see this blog). IMO these are reasonable requests, given the imminent change in statutory instrument on Copyright. [My questions are appended at the bottom – I hope you agree they are polite and clear and deserving of answers. Basically I have asked them what their practice and policy is about restrictive licences which they sign with publishers about Text and Data Mining. The University of Glasgow is the first to respond (other than acknowledgments). Their response is 'we don’t hold the information you have requested'. I am speechless. I expected a variety of responses but not this. Very, very, simply. The University of Glasgow has legally signed contracts with publishers. They tell me that they do not have the contracts they have signed. What? If you sign a contract you should keep it. I’d assume they have to keep copies of contracts for seven years. But apparently Glasgow throw them away after signing ..."