SPARC Open Access to Scholarship New Solutions

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SPARC Open Access to Scholarship New Solutions
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Facts and figures

• Academic libraries in the UK spent 19 more per
  fte student to purchase 18 fewer journal titles
  per fte student in 1999-2000 than in 1991-92
• While world production of scholarly
  communication is estimated to have doubled since
  the mid 1980s, the average research library's
  journal subscriptions have actually declined by
  6
• There are currently 20,000 peer-reviewed
  journals of scientific and scholarly research
  worldwide, publishing over 4 million articles per
  year

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Facts and Figures

• Subsidies from granting agencies and
  universities for publishing in the humanities
  have virtually disappeared in the past 15 years.
• Academic libraries in the UK are purchasing 19
  fewer monographs per fte student today than they
  did 8 years ago due to high journal prices and
  resources in new formats
• Journals purchased by UK academic libraries have
  gone up in price an average of 11 per annum
  since 1991-92, while the consumer price index
  has increased by only 2.7 per annum.

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THE EFFECT OF JOURNAL PRICES ON UK ACADEMIC
LIBRARIES

Graph and statistical information compiled from
the SCONUL Statistics by LISU, the Library and
Information Statistics Unit, based at
Loughborough University
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SPARC

• SPARC is a world-wide alliance of research
  institutions, libraries and organisations that
  encourages competition in the scholarly
  communications market. SPARC introduces new
  solutions to scientific journal publishing,
  facilitates the use of technology to expand
  access, and partners with publishers that bring
  top-quality, low-cost research to a greater
  audience. SPARC strives to return science to
  scientists.
• http//www.arl.org/sparc

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What Does SPARC Do?

• Incubation of competitive alternatives
• Public advocacy of fundamental changes in the
  system and the culture of scholarly communication
• Education campaigns aimed at enhancing awareness
  of scholarly communication issues and supporting
  expanded institutional and scholarly community
  roles in and control over the scholarly
  communication process

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SPARC Europe

• CURL, SCONUL and JISC, with participation by
  LIBER, sponsored a visit to the UK by SPARC
  representatives in February 2001 to raise
  awareness of SPARC activities and to consider
  expanding the SPARC agenda in Europe
• SPARC Europe is supported by LIBER, CURL, IWI,
  JISC, SCONUL, SPARC, and UKB
• http//www.sparceurope.org

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2nd Workshop on the Open Archives Initiative
(OAI)Gaining independence with e-prints archives
and OAI, October 17-19, 2002, CERNFor more
information http//library.cern.ch/Announcement.h
tm.
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"Institutional Repositories Creating an
Infrastructure for Faculty-Institution
Partnerships," October 18, 2002, Washington, DC