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Re: [SOAF] ALPSP Response to RCUK Policy Proposal



I wish I could believe that libraries' collection policies were designed
to support journals, rather than to make too little money go as far as
possible.

Sally

Sally Morris, Chief Executive
Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers
Email: sally.morris@alpsp.org

----- Original Message ----- From: "Heather Morrison" <heatherm@eln.bc.ca>
To: "SPARC Open Access Forum" <SPARC-OAForum@arl.org>
Cc: "American Scientist Open Access Forum" <AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM@LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG>; "Sally Morris ((ALPSP))" <chief-exec@alpsp.org>
Sent: Monday, July 04, 2005 6:04 PM
Subject: Re: [SOAF] ALPSP Response to RCUK Policy Proposal

apologies for cross-posting - to the SPARC Open Access Forum and the American Scientist Open Access Forum:

What Sally is saying raises a very important point, from my perspective. As we move into the transition phase to open access, it is essential that libraries rework their collection policies to ensure continuing support for journals which are providing open access, where traditional approaches (such as decreasing statistics) might lead to cancellation.

At the very least, a library should examine potential cancellations very carefully, if the journal is supporting any form of open or free access (such as access to back issues). Better yet, why not rewrite collections policies to reflect the transformation our scholarly communications are undergoing?

Some libraries have already made some changes, of course - many are members of BioMedCentral and Public Library of Science, for example, while others are hosting or publishing journals. Having a library host and provide technical support for the publishing activities of scholarly associations might be worth looking into for some of the associations, incidentally.

cheers,

Heather Morrison