Transcript ASSOCIATION OF RESEARCH LIBRARIES HISTORY, …

ARL Scholarly
Communication
Catalyst for Change
Mary M. Case • UIC • April 25, 2008
Overview
5
Major Tenets of the Scholarly
Communication Program
 Accomplishments
 The Future
1. Data Driven
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Serials & monograph stats & time-series trends
Serials Pricing Project - analyzed publisher costs
Mellon Study, University Libraries and Scholarly
Communication - examined the economics of
scholarly communication (published by ARL)
Directory of Electronic Journals
Publisher profit data
Cost per page/ cost per impact studies
Impact of mergers on prices
Bundling studies
“Without this
chart, there
wouldn’t be a
serials crisis!”
2. Urgency Inducing
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Build Capacity
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May 1989
“It is the sense of the membership that the issue of
serials prices is of such a critical nature that we would
support a supplementary dues assessment in order to
expedite association action.” Motion passed.
Led to the creation of OSAP/OSC (1990)
Build consensus for action
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AAU Research Libraries Project (1992)
Task Force Reports issued in 1994
• foreign acquisitions (Global Resources Project)
• STI and IP Task Forces recommended greater role for the
academic community in ownership & mgmt of faculty
intellectual property
3. Action-Oriented
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ARL Scholarly Communication TF Report 1985
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Work with learned societies to monitor changes in disciplines
and scholarly behavior
Communicate instances of unfair trade practices & pricing to
regulatory agencies
Take leadership role in developing models for licensing
agreements
Facilitate dialog among the players in scholarly communication
system
Other recommendations
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Communicate nature of problems broadly
Introduce competition & cost-based pricing through adoption of
electronic publishing
Explore feasibility of mandating retention of ownership of IP
Promote system of national repositories
Finding the “Right” Action
“A Conference is a gathering of important people
who singly can do nothing but together
can decide that nothing can be done.”
Fred Allen, 1940
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Proposals
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Author self-archiving - Stephan Harnad
Electronic Scholarly Publishing (ESP) Program
International Scholars Academic Network (IScAN)
SPARC
Decoupling - Cal Tech Conf, Chuck Phelps
NEAR (National Electronic Article Repository) - David
Shulenburger
Taking “Some” Action
 SPARC
- Scholarly Publishing & Academic
Resources Coalition
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Proposed May 1997; official launch 1998
Just do it!
Proof of concept
Fabulous PR efforts
Flexibility to adapt to support multiple
approaches
4. Network-Dependent
5. Educationally Focused
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Serials Prices Project
Publishing Mellon Study
Symposia, conferences, roundtables
Articles, white papers, Spec Kits, TL
Workshops and webcasts
Create Change Website
ARL/ACRL Institute on Scholarly Communication
Presentations around the globe by ARL and
SPARC staff and members
PR - SPARC
Summary of 5 Tenets
 Data
 Urgency
 Action
 Networks
 Education
Accomplishments
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Getting far more content for our dollars
 NIH Mandate
 Provost support - Tempe, NIH, FRPAA, addenda
 Sustained attention by the media
 Increased faculty knowledge & willingness to act - PLoS,
Harvard, boards, resolutions, SC
 Significant international support for open access
 International scrutiny of STM publishing
 Continued building of evidence base
 Cadre of knowledgeable librarians
 Licenses moving to best practices (SERU)
The Future
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STM industry still strong (Elsevier’s net operating
profit was 32% for 2007)
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Aggressive negotiations - bldg support to decline deals
Investing in alternatives (IRs, Publishing, OA models)
Challenging anti-competitive behaviors
Integrating our services into the workflow of
faculty and students
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Build on efforts to understand disciplinary differences &
similarities
Develop expertise & services to work w/ faculty as
projects are being conceived
Engage faculty on issues of copyright management,
access, preservation
We are not the only ones…
“Digital technology enables Reed Elsevier to
move up the value chain with its customers
by providing a range of innovative solution
orientated products that become embedded
in their workflow. This is playing a major
part in Reed Elsevier’s strategy going
forward.”
Reed Elsevier 2007 Annual Report, p. 81 (italics
added).
Endangered Species?
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Urgency remains
 Let’s not let access to
scholarship become
as endangered as the
rhinoceros!
ARL Scholarly
Communication
Catalyst for Change
Mary M. Case • UIC • April 25, 2008