Urgent Action Needed to Preserve Scholarly Electronic Journals

[Ann Okerson <ann.okerson@yale.edu>]

Dear Readers:  Please see an important statement just mounted on the CLIR 
(Council on Library and Electronic Resources) Web site, at:

http://www.clir.org/pubs/resources/waters2005.html

This paper was edited/compiled by Donald J. Waters, Program Officer, The
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.  It details the outcomes of a consultation
held at the Foundation in September.  The document begins, "Digital
preservation represents one of the grand challenges facing higher
education. In field after field, research and teaching are generating
data, reports, publications, teaching materials, and other forms of
scholarly communication in digital formats."  Waters and the group then
identify four key actions that must be taken as soon as possible.

The listowners strongly concur with this document and would welcome your
discussion of ways and means to advance this agenda.  The statement was
also endorsed last week at a meeting of the NERL (NorthEast Research
Library) consortium members.  NERL represents 26 large research library
members and 47 small affiliated institutions.  (See
www.library.yale.edu/NERLpublic)

Postings to this list are invited.

Sincerely, Ann Okerson
Yale Library
NERL Coordinator