Issues in Scholarly Communication is a newsletter produced by Paula Kaufman, University Librarian and Dean of Libraries, for the Illinois community. Entries from 2001-2005 newsletter are available.
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Some library leaders are urging colleges and academic libraries to take action to preserve online scholarly journals, saying they could vanish into oblivion should publishers go out of business or face other calamities. A group of librarians, college administrators, and scholars issued a public call to action on the issue in October, in a statement edited by Donald J. Waters, an official specializing in scholarly communications at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The Association of College and Research Libraries endorsed the message this month. "Since most libraries do not actually own and store the content of the journals they license in electronic form, new models for preservation must be developed," association officials said in a statement. "Scholars may face serious loss of access to published research if libraries do not adopt effective electronic-journal-preservation strategies." (from DigLib) Unlike print journals, which libraries own and can keep forever, electronic journals are provided to libraries under a kind of lease. Libraries pay for the privilege of having access to the journals online. But many libraries fear they will not be able to retrieve back issues should that access abruptly end -- if, for example, a publisher goes bankrupt. This is of special concern now that libraries are increasingly relying on electronic journals. The association says it supports allowing libraries to operate their own electronic archives or to form a collective with other libraries to preserve electronic journals. The archive would be made available to scholars only when the publisher could no longer provide access to the journals, or if the materials were no longer protected by copyright. Chronicle of Higher Education 2/24/06 (Note, I was part of the group that issued the call to action.)
Posted by P. Kaufman at February 24, 2006 7:14 AM
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