Re: Cornell University Library Engages More Institutions in Supporting arXiv

[Sandy Thatcher <sgt3@psu.edu>]

It would be nice if universities felt the same sense of shared 
ownership and responsibility for our country's system of 
university presses.  Back in 1979 The Report of the National 
Enquiry into Scholarly Communication made this recommendation, as 
one of 12 principal recommendations:

"Recommendation Eight: To broaden support for scholarly 
publishing, we recommend that universities without presses become 
active participants in the publishing process as sponsors of work 
produced on their campuses."

Among a number of ways suggested were title subsidies for the 
university's faculty publications, sponsorship of a monograph 
series, and participation in a consortium of presses (like the 
University Press of New England).

"The purpose of this recommendation is to encourage universities 
and colleges to consider the full range of alternatives whereby 
they can join in the communication of scholarly knowledge and 
help strengthen the financial underpinnings of scholarly 
publishing."

I might add that if there is ever to be any hope for OA 
succeeding in monograph publishing, just such broader cooperation 
across all universities will be essential.

Sandy Thatcher
Penn State University Press





>Cornell University Library Engages More Institutions in
>Supporting arXiv
>
>Collaborative Business Model Changes Funding Structure
>
>ITHACA, N.Y. (Jan. 21, 2010) - In a move to expand support for
>sustaining arXiv, Cornell University Library is broadening the
>funding base for the online scientific repository. Nearly 600,000
>e-prints - research articles published online in physics,
>mathematics, statistics, computer science and related disciplines
>- now reside in arXiv, which is an open information source for
>hundreds of thousands of scientific researchers.
>
>arXiv will remain free for readers and submitters, but the
>Library has established a voluntary, collaborative business model
>to engage institutions that benefit most from arXiv.
>
>"Keeping an open-access resource like arXiv sustainable means not
>only covering its costs, but also continuing to enhance its
>value, and that kind of financial commitment is beyond a single
>institution's resources," said Oya Rieger, Associate University
>Librarian for Information Technologies. "If a case can be made
>for any repository being community-supported, arXiv has to be at
>the top of the list."
>
>About 200 institutions use arXiv the most heavily and account for
>more than 75 percent of institutional downloads. Cornell is
>asking these institutions for financial support in the form of
>annual contributions, and most of the top 25 have already
>committed to helping arXiv.
>
>Institutions that have already pledged support include:
>
>* California Institute of Technology
>* University of California, Berkeley
>* University of Cambridge (UK)
>* CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research (Switzerland)
>* CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (France)
>* Columbia University
>* DESY - Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (Germany)
>* Durham University (UK)
>* Fermilab
>* Harvard University
>* University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
>* Imperial College London (UK)
>* Los Alamos National Lab
>* Massachusetts Institute of Technology
>* Max Planck Institute for Informatics (Germany)
>* University of Michigan
>* University of Oxford (UK)
>* University of Pennsylvania
>* Princeton University
>* Texas A&M University
>
>"We are delighted that so many others have already stepped
>forward to share the cost of arXiv, and that even more are
>considering it," said Anne R. Kenney, Carl A. Kroch University
>Librarian at Cornell. "It is heartening to see other institutions
>show their commitment to sustaining this eminent resource, which
>is used by scientists around the world."
>
>"arXiv is a vital resource for scholarly communication on a
>global scale for researchers and students across numerous
>disciplines. It is essential that the institutions whose users
>contribute to the database and consume its content provide an
>appropriate level of financial support," said James G. Neal, Vice
>President for Information Services and University Librarian at
>Columbia University.
>
>The proposed funding model is viewed as a short-term strategy,
>and the Library is actively seeking input on a long-term
>solution. Currently, Cornell University Library supports the
>operating costs of arXiv, which are comparable to the costs of
>the university's collection budget for physics and astronomy. As
>one of the most influential innovations in scholarly
>communications since the advent of the Internet, arXiv's original
>dissemination model represented the first significant means to
>provide expedited access to scientific research well ahead of
>formal publication.
>
>Researchers upload their own articles to arXiv, and they are
>usually made available to the public the next day. arXiv has
>about 400,000 users and serves more than 2.5 million article
>downloads per month. Its 101,000 registered submitters live in
>nearly 200 countries.
>
>arXiv is also interconnected with many other scholarly
>information resources. These include the INSPIRE system being
>developed by supporting high-energy physics laboratories CERN,
>DESY, Fermilab and SLAC, as well as the Astrophysics Data System
>at Harvard University, another supporting institution.
>
>For details about the operating principles of the new structure,
>visit the FAQ at http://arxiv.org/help/support/faq. For questions
>about supporting arXiv, contact consortia representatives or the
>arXiv office at Cornell University Library at support@arxiv.org.
>
>About Cornell University Library
>
>Cornell University is an Ivy League institution and New York's
>land-grant university. Among the top ten academic research
>libraries in the country, Cornell University Library reflects the
>university's distinctive mix of eminent scholarship and
>democratic ideals. The Library offers cutting-edge programs and
>facilities, a full spectrum of services, extensive collections
>that represent the depth and breadth of the university, and a
>deep network of digital resources. Its impact reaches beyond
>campus boundaries with initiatives that extend the land grant
>mission to a global focus. To learn more, visit
><http://library.cornell.edu>.
>
>terry ehling
>scholarly communications strategist
>library information technologies
>project euclid | cornell university library
>ithaca [ny] 14853


-- 
Sanford G. Thatcher
Executive Editor for Social Sciences and Humanities
Penn State University Press
8201 Edgewater Drive
Frisco, TX  75034-5514
e-mail: sgt3@psu.edu
Phone: (214) 705-9010
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