ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 356 / C&RL News ■ May 2002 SCHOLARLY CO M M U N IC ATIO N ACRL’s new scholarly communication initiative Addressing a growing crisis by Ray English and D eborah Dancik A CRL will embark on a new scholarly com­ m unication initiative beginning w ith the ALA Annual Conference in Atlanta (June 13- 19, 2002). Addressing issues that are critical to the future of all academ ic libraries, the ini­ tiative is designed to enable ACRL to play a prominent national role in working to reshape the current system of scholarly com m unica­ tion. Major activities that will be part of the ini­ tiative include educating librarians, faculty, and higher education administrators about scholarly communication issues; encouraging scholars to assert greater control over the sys­ tem of scholarly comm unication; building partnerships and coalitions with other orga­ nizations concerned with these issues; and advocating policy and legislative change. Through these efforts, ACRL will contrib­ ute to the developm ent of a new system of scholarly communication that is m ore respon­ sive to the needs of the scholarly com m u­ nity, one in which scholarly information is both more affordable and m ore accessible. The system o f scholarly com m unication The new initiative addresses a growing crisis in the system of scholarly communication. The crisis is in large part an outgrow th of the “se­ rials issue,” w hich has been with our profes­ sion for decades. But in recent years we have begun to realize that the serials problem , how ever vexing it continues to be, is inter­ tw ined in com plex ways with the entire sys­ tem by which scholarly research is produced and disseminated. In other words, w e have begun to see that the serials issue is part of a growing crisis in the broader system of schol­ arly communication, which will be resolved only through a fundam ental restructuring of the system itself. Reshaping the system will be a long and difficult process requiring the com bined ef­ forts of faculty, librarians, administrators, and concerned organizations in this country and abroad. W orking for change in the system involves analyzing and dealing with com ­ plex issues that are econom ic, political, and sociological. The issues range from the ex­ traordinary concentration of economic pow er in the hands of a few scientific publishers, to th e politics o f legislation to p ro te c t fair use in th e digital env iro n m en t, to cultural aspects o f th e te n u re a n d p ro m o tio n sys­ tem. D espite inh eren t difficulties, there are m any reasons w hy the system can indeed be reshaped through concerted and purposeful action. Examples include the success of SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Re­ sources Coalition) and growing interest in these issues by faculty researchers and higher education administrators. About the authors Ray English is director o f libraries a t Oberlin College, e-mail: ray.english@oberlin.edu; Deborah Dancik is associate director o f libraries a tth e University o f Alberta Rutherford Library South, e-mail: deborah.dancik@ualberta.ca mailto:ray.english@oberlin.edu mailto:deborah.dancik@ualberta.ca C&RL News ■ M ay 2002 / 357 ACRL's Scholarly Com m unications Task Force ACRL’s scholarly com m unication initiative grew out of the recommendations of the ACRL Scholarly Communications Task Force, which w as established by the ACRL Board in June 2000 to explore how ACRL might address these issues. Chaired by Ray English, with J a m e s N e a l, K a rly e B u tc h e r , C a th y W ojewodzki, and D eborah Dancik as m em ­ bers, the task force’s charge w as to examine and m ake recom m endations regarding the role that ACRL could play in shaping the fu­ ture of scholarly communication. Task force m em bers believed that it was important to understand how ACRL m em bers view ed scholarly com m unication issues and the role that the association might play in addressing them. To this end, the task force conducted an e-mail survey of m em bers to gain input on these questions. The survey results indicated that ACRL m em bers assign a high priority to scholarly communication con­ cerns. The results also provided a general priority ranking of specific issues and ACRL’s potential role in addressing them. Working from the survey data, the task force held six focus groups with association m em bers and leaders to envision w hat form ACRL’s commitment might take. The task force also canvassed other associations and orga­ nizations to learn w hat they are doing to ad­ dress scholarly com m unication issues and to determ ine how ACRL might best com plem ent w ork or initiatives that are underway. A n e w role fo r ACRL From this research the task force began to conceptualize a new scholarly com m unica­ tion role for ACRL. It c o n clu d ed that the association’s activities should be prioritized into four m ain areas: 1) education of librar­ ians, faculty, and higher education adminis­ trators, 2) advocacy of various kinds, 3) coa­ lition building a nd developing an action plan w ithin the higher education community, and 4) research. These priorities m esh nicely with ACRL’s Strategic Plan and the organization’s core values, w hich focus on enhancing the effec­ tiveness of academ ic and research librarians to advance learning, teaching, and research in higher education. The priorities also rec­ ognize ACRL’s broad m em bership base, its strong record in m em ber program ming, its existing liaison relationships with higher e d u ­ cation organizations, and its established part­ nerships with SPARC and ARL. Given the com plexity of scholarly com ­ m unication issues, and the im portance of w orking on them in a sustained w ay over time, the task force recom m ended that ACRL mount ongoing programs to educate academic librarians about scholarly com m unication is­ sues and that ACRL create support m echa­ nisms, programs, and publicity efforts to help make faculty researchers and higher educa­ tion administrators m ore aw are of the im por­ tance of these concerns. The task force identified an ongoing need for advocacy on legislative and policy issues. Recent mergers in the publishing industry and legislation related to copyright and database access are exam ples of concerns that require c o o rd in a te d political e d u c atio n a l efforts. These efforts need to be coordinated with ACRL and ALA units that have responsibility in legislative areas. The task force also recom m ended that ACRL conduct research that will support its educational, advocacy, and coalition-building efforts. It is im portant to know m ore about h o w scholarly com m unication issues have affected all types of academ ic libraries, par­ ticularly smaller universities, colleges, and com m unity colleges w here less research on the issues has b e e n done. Data related to smaller institutions will be an important com ­ p o n en t in determ ining how they can contrib­ ute to the developm ent of a new system of scholarly com m unication. M a k in g it happen Fulfilling these new roles will require ACRL to develop new internal structures and to devote significant time and financial resources to these issues. Initiatives n e e d to be coordi­ nated with those ACRL comm ittees and sec­ tions that are interested in scholarly com m u­ nication issues. ACRL also needs to build on broad-based collaborative efforts with other organizations concerned about these issues. To coordinate the association’s efforts, the task force thought it w ould b e necessary to estab­ lish a standing comm ittee on scholarly com ­ munication. Most particip an ts in th e focus g roups agreed that ACRL could not be successful in 358 / C&RL N ew s ■ M a y 2002 dealing with scholarly comm unication issues unless it had strong leadership from the presi­ dent and the board as well as active partici­ pation from the m em bers at large. Because the scholarly comm unication agenda will re­ quire time, visibility, and an in-depth know l­ edge of the issues, the initiative cannot rely solely on volunteer efforts. In view of these factors, the task force rec­ om m ended that ACRL engage a visiting pro­ gram officer to w ork actively on scholarly comm unication issues and have primary re­ sponsibility for canying out the association’s scholarly comm unication agenda. The officer w ould also serve as a visible spokesperson for the association on these issues. In order to facilitate m em ber participa­ tion at the grass-roots level, the task force reco m m en d ed the form ation of an ACRL scholarly com m unication discussion group. The group should provide an opportunity for general m em ber participation and e d u ­ cation and function as a source of ideas as the scholarly com m unication agenda is d e ­ veloped. The success of ACRL’s strategic initiative on information literacy has show n that sig­ nificant initiatives need to be supported by a firm financial base. Accordingly, the task force believed ACRL should establish an annual budget for scholarly comm unication that ad­ dresses all planned areas of activity. Board action The report of the ACRL Scholarly Communi­ cations Task Force was submitted to the ACRL Board in January 2002, and its recom m en­ dations w ere unanim ously approved by the Board at the 2002 Midwinter Meeting in New Orleans. The Board resolved that w orking to reshape scholarly com m unication will be one of the organization’s highest strategic p riorities a n d that activities will include broad-based educational work, political ad­ vocacy, coalition building, and research. A standing com m ittee will be established, a visiting program officer will be hired, and ACRL will budget u p to $90,000 annually for the initiative. In a separate action, the Board approved the establishm ent of a scholarly com m unica­ tion discussion group, based on a petition of m em bers that was subm itted at the Midwin­ ter Meeting. N ext steps Real w ork on the initiative begins at Annual Conference with the initial meetings of the standing committee and discussion group and the confirmation of the first year’s budget. ACRL will then solicit candidates for the visit­ ing program officer position to begin in Sep­ tember. ACRL has taken strong action to address the ongoing crisis in scholarly com m unica­ tion. This new initiative will allow the asso­ ciation to play a prom inent national role in shaping the future of the scholarly com m uni­ c a tio n system in p a rtn e rs h ip w ith o th e r groups. We ask all ACRL m em bers to follow and support this initiative as it develops. ■ ( “The value o f . . c o n tin u ed fr o m p a g e 348) 8. Stewart, David W. Focus groups. Newbury Park, California: Sage Publications, 1990. 9. Thomas, Susan J. Designing surveys that work. T housand Oaks, California: Corwin Press, 1999. 10. University of Texas at Austin. Libraries f o r the Future. (Survey & Focus Group Out­ line). Austin, Texas: Graduate School of Li­ brary and Information Science, 2000. ■