Library Associations and Open Access: update

[Heather Morrison <heatherm@eln.bc.ca>]

Library Associations & Open Access - update:

On Saturday, June 19, a Resolution on Open Access, submitted by the
Information Policy Committee, was approved by the British Columbia Library
Association, without opposition.  The full text of the resolution follows,
in case it might be of interest to anyone considering a similar resolution
for their own association.  If your association has not yet made its own
publications openly accessible, there are a couple of options worth
considering.  One, of course, is to call for immediately making all
publications openly accessible.  Another would be to call for an
investigation into making as many of the association's publications as
openly accessible as possible.  Some factors to consider here are the
types of publications your association produces (e.g. print monographs
likely cannot be supported without some form of cost recovery), the
association's financial position, etc.  It is likely that some of the
action steps, such as educational initiatives, would fall within the
current mandate of most library associations, and therefore would not need
to wait for a resolution.

A similar resolution will go to the Canadian Library Association at the
2005 AGM.

In other news, the Library Association of Alberta is making all except the
current issue of their Letter of the LAA freely available to all - see:
http://www.laa.ab.ca/news/letter_of_laa.cfm

A Resolution on Open Access

Whereas connecting users with the information they need is one of a
library's most essential functions, and access to information is one of
librarianship's most cherished values;

And whereas the scholarly publishing industry has been experiencing a
cycle of price increases above inflation rates, leading to library
cancellations, leading to further price increases, and so forth, with no
relief in sight, and has thus negatively impacted access to research;

And whereas the Open Access alternative involves making peer-reviewed
scholarly journal articles freely available over the web through open
access journals and/or author self-archiving;

And whereas British Columbia librarians and faculty are leaders in the
Open Access movement, as exemplified by the Public Knowledge Project at
UBC and the participation of BC academic libraries in SPARC (Scholarly
Publishing and Research Coalition);

And whereas the BCLA has already committed to making its publication, the
BCLA Reporter, openly accessible once an online version is available;

And whereas the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA)  
and the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) have declared
support for Open Access;

Be it resolved that the BCLA formally declare its commitment to Open
Access by signing onto one of: the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to
Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities, the Budapest Open Access
Initiative, or the Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing, and;

Be it further resolved thatthe BCLA write a letter to the Premier, with
copies to presidents of BC post-secondary institutions, applauding local
leadership in Open Access, such as the Public Knowledge Project, the CARL
Institutional Repository Project, and Library and Archives Canada’s Theses
Canada Portal, and;

Be it further resolved that the BCLA encourage the BC library community to
support Open Access by cataloguing and providing access to open access
journals and promoting awareness of Open Access, and that the BCLA
encourage post-secondary institutions to formally declare their support by
signing on to Open Access initiatives, and;

Be it further resolved that the BCLA educate the library community in BC
about Open Access through articles in the BCLA Reporter, sessions at BCLA
Conferences, and information on the BCLA web page.

CARL Institutional Repository Project:  www.carl-abrc.ca/projects/ir
Public Knowledge Project:  http://pkp.ubc.ca/
The Budapest Open Access Initiative http://www.soros.org/openaccess/
The Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing 
http://www.earlham.edu/%7Epeters/fos/bethesda.htm
Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and 
Humanities 
http://www.zim.mpg.de/openaccess-berlin/berlindeclaration.html
IFLA Statement on Open Access 
http://www.ifla.org/V/cdoc/open-access04.html
World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)  
http://www.itu.int/wsis/documents/doc_multi-en-1161|1160.asp
SPARC Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition)  
http://www.arl.org/sparc/home/index.asp?page=0

Other Canadian open access iniatives that may be of interest: Bioline
International http://bioline.utsc.utoronto.ca/ - a collaboration that
makes the scientific output of third world countries accessible.

Library and Archives Canada Theses Canada Portal
http://www.collectionscanada.ca/thesescanada/index-e.html - fulltext of
Canadian theses and dissertations published from 1998 - 2002 Canadian
Medical Association Journal  http://www.cmaj.ca/ - completely openly
accessible - with no author charges!  CMAJ's impact factor has doubled in
the past few years, and it is now one of the top 5 medical journals by
impact factor.

cheers,

Heather G. Morrison
Project Coordinator
BC Electronic Library Network
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Phone: 604-268-7001
Fax: 604-291-3023
Email:  heatherm@eln.bc.ca
Web: http://www.eln.bc.ca