New Brochure Introduces Open Access

["John D'Ignazio" <john@arl.org>]

For Immediate Release
June 23, 2004

For more information, contact:
John D'Ignazio, john@arl.org
http://www.arl.org/sparc/

NEW BROCHURE INTRODUCES OPEN ACCESS
Educational Aid Helps Explain the Why and How of Open Access to Research

Washington, D.C. - Following the recent, positive response to their
revised and redesigned Create Change brochure, SPARC (the Scholarly
Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition), the Association of Research
Libraries (ARL) and the Association of College and Research Libraries
(ACRL) have published a new brochure that introduces open access to
scientific and scholarly research. As with Create Change, the Open Access
brochure's colorful design helps librarians reach out to faculty and
academic researchers so they understand an increasingly popular strategy
for advancing scholarly communication in the Internet age.

While the Create Change brochure is a general look at scholarly publishing
challenges and options for faculty action, the new brochure presents the
benefits of open access to authors, readers, teachers, scholars, and
scientists. Facts and figures demonstrate how open access to scholarly
research capitalizes on Internet connectivity to increase a research
article's use and impact.

The brochure also suggests steps authors of journal articles can take to
provide open access to their work. For example, retaining rights to post
their pre- or post-prints in institutional repositories can help ensure
broad exposure for a scholar's research. Broader scale faculty actions
include working towards their academic society's adoption of open access
or helping to publish an open-access journal themselves.

The brochure is suitable for campus mailings and for use in scholarly
communication programs aimed at scientists and scholars. Individual copies
of the brochure are free upon request. SPARC will be distributing samples
at the American Library Association (ALA) annual meeting in Orlando, Fla.,
this week, from June 26 through 29 at their booth #853.

Both Open Access and Create Change can be purchased in bulk for US $12.50
per bundle of 50 brochures plus shipping and handling charges.  Order by
phone at (301) 362-8196 or by email to arl@pmds.com.  Electronic copies of
Open Access and Create Change, suitable for printing, are available free
on the Create Change website at
www.createchange.org/resources/brochure.html. For further information
please contact the SPARC Communications Specialist, John D'Ignazio, at
john@arl.org.


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SPARC, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resource Coalition, is an 
international alliance of academic and research libraries and 
organizations working to correct market dysfunctions in the scholarly 
publishing system. Developed by ARL, SPARC has over 200 member 
institutions and affiliates in North America and closely collaborates 
with SPARC Europe, which represents more than 100 institutions in 14 
European nations. SPARC's strategies and activities support open access 
and capitalize on the digital networked environment to disseminate 
research more broadly.

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is an association of over 
120 of the largest research libraries in North America. The member 
institutions serve over 160,000 faculty researchers and scholars and 
more than 4 million students in the U.S. and Canada. ARL's mission is 
to shape and influence forces affecting the future of research 
libraries in the process of scholarly communication. ARL programs and 
services promote equitable access to and effective use of recorded 
knowledge in support of teaching, research, scholarship, and community 
service.

The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), a division of 
the American Library Association, represents more than 12,000 academic 
and research librarians and interested individuals. ACRL is the only 
individual membership organization in North America that develops 
programs, products and services to meet the unique needs of academic 
and research librarians. Its initiatives enable the higher education 
community to understand the role that academic and research libraries 
play in the teaching, learning and research environments.