RLUK

The Association of Research Libraries (North America)
The Canadian Association of Research Libraries
The Consortium of University Research Libraries (UK and Ireland)
The Council of Australian University Librarians
The Council of New Zealand University Librarians
LIBER (Ligue des Bibliothèques Européennes de Recherche)
Association of National University Libraries (Japan)
Joint University Librarians Advisory Committee (Hong Kong SAR, China)

For Release on 6 February 2002
For more information:

Paul Ayris, University College London
+ 44 20 7679 7834
 p.ayris@ucl.ac.uk

New International Scholarly Communications Alliance Engages Academics in Broadening Access to Research

Facilitates Transformation of Knowledge Dissemination

Washington, DC -- Eight of the world’s principal research library organizations today announced the establishment of the International Scholarly Communications Alliance (ISCA). The ISCA, an initiative of research library associations in Australia, Canada, Europe, Japan, Hong Kong SAR, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States, is an action-oriented global network that will collaborate with scholars and publishers to establish equitable access to scholarly and research publications.

The ISCA – whose members represent over 600 research libraries worldwide – will engage in a series of activities that focus the scholarly publishing process on the primary goals of the academic research community, advancing the discovery of new knowledge and facilitating its dissemination. Through sharing expertise on scholarly communications issues, these organizations, whose total library budgets equal over US$5 billion and which serve well over 11 million students and faculty, will be prepared to act as a unified body in creating policies and taking actions that advance these goals.

Because the ISCA recognizes that both the publishing industry and the research community are global, its members will concentrate on ways to ensure open and affordable access to scholarship across national boundaries. Its essential partnership will be with the scholar-author, the key provider of the world’s research.

Many scholar-authors have already become active partners with their university library, playing a visible role in making research more accessible. Both within faculty departments and in libraries, the spiralling cost of journal literature (in particular research in science, technology, and medicine) is a cause of concern. During the past 15 years, serial unit cost increases have outpaced general inflation in the economies of developed countries. This has resulted in increased costs of 226 percent (U.S.) for universities and their libraries and a reduction in their ability to deliver access to the global knowledge base for their researchers.

As a body, ISCA will promote solutions which its members agree are necessary, practical and viable approaches. Members will then collaborate to develop, expand, and leverage initiatives to transform the scholarly communications process, including strategic and advocacy programs including but not limited to:

 SPARC, the ARL-initiated effort to facilitate competition in scientific communication through the creation of high-quality alternatives to commercial titles, and SPARC Europe, recently launched to provide a European operational arm for SPARC activities;
 The establishment of institutional and discipline-based archives that allow public access to content and employ the Open Archives Metadata Harvesting Protocol.

Initial members of ISCA include: the Association of Japanese National University Libraries (ANUL); the Association of Research Libraries (ARL); the Canadian Association of Research Libraries/Association des bibliothèques de recherche du Canada (CARL/ABRC); the Consortium of University Research Libraries, U.K. (CURL); the Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL); the Council of New Zealand Librarians (CONZUL); the Ligue des Bibliothèques Européennes de Recherche (LIBER), and the Joint University Librarians Advisory Committee, Hong Kong SAR, China (JULAC).

For Further Information:

 ANUL/Syun Tutiya:
 tutiya@chiba-u.ac.jp
   
 ARL/Mary Case:
 http://www.arl.org
 marycase@arl.org
   
 CAUL/Diane Costello: 
 http://www.caul.edu.au
 diane.costello@caul.edu.au
   
 CARL/ABRC/Tim Mark:
 http://www.carl-abrc.ca
 carl@uottawa.ca
   
 CURL/Paul Ayris:
 http://www.curl.ac.uk
 p.ayris@ucl.ac.uk
   
 CONZUL/Sue Pharo:
 http://www.conzul.ac.nz
 s.pharo@waikato.ac.nz
   
 LIBER/Elmar Mittler:
 http://www2.kb.dk/liber
 mittler@mail.sub.uni-goettingen.de
   
 JULAC/Colin Storey:
 http://www.julac.org
 storey@cuhk.edu.hk