Re: Five Universities Sign Open Access Funding Compact

[Heather Morrison <hgmorris@sfu.ca>]

>From my perspective, this move is a key to a smooth and 
successful transition to open access.  I encourage every library 
and university to join.  Publishers who would like to move to 
open access but and would like to see a smooth transition with 
assurance of economic support would do well to encourage library 
customers to sign on.

There is no immediate financial commitment required, rather a 
commitment to develop models for equity for open access 
publishing. It is this recognition of the university, through the 
library, as the basic support for scholarly communication that 
makes this a key step. Once we see that academic library budgets 
as a key support for scholarly communication, it is easy to see 
that there is no inherent reason to prioritize subscriptions over 
support for open access.

Kudos to the initial signatories!

Heather Morrison, MLIS
The Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics
http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.com