The Research Support Libraries Group (RSLG) is a two-year old organization launched by the four UK higher education funding bodies, in collaboration with the British Library and the national libraries of Wales and Scotland, under the direction of Sir Brian Follett. Its mission is "to ensure that researchers working in the UK can have access to the full range of world-class information resources." In practice this has meant to find a new national strategy for supporting research in the face of overpriced traditional journals and opportunities created by the internet. It has just released its important Final Report outlining such a strategy. Paragraph 23 says, "Common software tools and technical standards, and open access to publicly funded materials, are clearly desirable." Paragraph 150 find "[i]ncreasing support for the development of 'open access' publication and new pricing models – notably the Budapest Open Access Initiative and the new titles set up with the support of the Scholarly Publication and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC)." The same paragraph finds promise in the practice of authors retaining copyright, self-archiving, and OAI interoperability. Also see paragraphs 156-158. (Thanks to Colin Steele.)
Posted by
Peter Suber at 2/13/2003 04:19:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
