diff --git a/cnxml/parse.py b/cnxml/parse.py
index 66902d9..a3d1ee0 100644
--- a/cnxml/parse.py
+++ b/cnxml/parse.py
@@ -60,6 +60,45 @@ def _squash_to_text(elm, remove_namespaces=False):
     return value
 
 
+def lookup_license_text(license_url):
+    switcher = {
+        'http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/1.0':
+            'Creative Commons Attribution License',
+        'http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/1.0':
+            'Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs License',
+        'http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/1.0':
+            'Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs-NonCommercial License',
+        'http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/1.0':
+            'Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License',
+        'http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/1.0':
+            'Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License',
+        'http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0':
+            'Creative Commons Attribution License',
+        'http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0':
+            'Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs License',
+        'http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/2.0':
+            'Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs-NonCommercial License',
+        'http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0':
+            'Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License',
+        'http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0':
+            'Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License',
+        'http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0':
+            'Creative Commons Attribution License',
+        'http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0':
+            'Creative Commons Attribution License',
+        'http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0':
+            'Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License',
+    }
+    # If license_url is None, appropriately return None
+    if license_url is None:
+        return None
+    # If license_url is not None, we expect to return a value
+    license_text = switcher.get(license_url.rstrip('/'), None)
+    if license_text is None:
+        raise Exception(f'Invalid license url {license_url}')
+    return license_text
+
+
 def parse_metadata(elm_tree):
     """Given an element-like object (:mod:`lxml.etree`)
     lookup the metadata and return the found elements
@@ -75,6 +114,7 @@ def parse_metadata(elm_tree):
         (_maybe(xpath(xp)) or "").split()
     )
 
+    license_url = _maybe(xpath('//md:license/@url'))
     props = {
         'id': _maybe(xpath('//md:content-id/text()')),
         'uuid': _maybe(xpath('//md:uuid/text()')),
@@ -87,7 +127,8 @@ def parse_metadata(elm_tree):
         'title':
             _maybe(xpath('//md:title/text()')) or xpath('//c:title/text()')[0],
         'slug': _maybe(xpath('//md:slug/text()')),
-        'license_url': _maybe(xpath('//md:license/@url')),
+        'license_url': license_url,
+        'license_text': lookup_license_text(license_url),
         'language': _maybe(xpath('//md:language/text()')),
         'authors': role_xpath('//md:role[@type="author"]/text()'),
         'maintainers': role_xpath('//md:role[@type="maintainer"]/text()'),
diff --git a/cnxml/tests/test_parse.py b/cnxml/tests/test_parse.py
index f83b978..5a1ef45 100644
--- a/cnxml/tests/test_parse.py
+++ b/cnxml/tests/test_parse.py
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 import pytest
 from lxml import etree
 
-from cnxml.parse import NSMAP, parse_metadata
+from cnxml.parse import NSMAP, parse_metadata, lookup_license_text
 
 
 @pytest.fixture
@@ -45,6 +45,7 @@ def test_parse(xml):
         ),
         'language': 'en',
         'license_url': 'http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/',
+        'license_text': 'Creative Commons Attribution License',
         'licensors': ('OSCRiceUniversity',),
         'maintainers': ('OpenStaxCollege', 'cnxcap'),
         'print_style': 'ccap-physics',
@@ -73,6 +74,7 @@ def test_git_parse(git_xml):
         'keywords': (),
         'language': 'en',
         'license_url': 'http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/',
+        'license_text': 'Creative Commons Attribution License',
         'licensors': (),
         'maintainers': (),
         'print_style': None,
@@ -174,6 +176,7 @@ def test_parse_with_minimal_metadata():
         'keywords': (),
         'language': None,
         'license_url': None,
+        'license_text': None,
         'licensors': (),
         'maintainers': (),
         'print_style': None,
@@ -214,6 +217,7 @@ def test_parse_with_optional_metadata():
         'keywords': (),
         'language': None,
         'license_url': None,
+        'license_text': None,
         'licensors': (),
         'maintainers': (),
         'print_style': None,
@@ -227,3 +231,9 @@ def test_parse_with_optional_metadata():
     }
     # Verify the metadata
     assert props == expected_props
+
+
+def test_invalid_license_url():
+    with pytest.raises(Exception) as e:
+        lookup_license_text('http://www.example.com/')
+    assert 'Invalid license url' in str(e)