The MIT Libraries have written a public statement on their decision not to accept the three-year renewal packages on offer from Wiley and Elsevier. The librarians: "These actions ensure that if the Libraries need to reduce spending in the next year or two, we can make those decisions based solely on the specific needs of the MIT user community, without giving unfair advantage to certain publishers." They quote MIT Professor Marcus Zahn, chair of the Faculty Committee on the Library System: "[W]e are concerned about the pressures exerted on the scholarly publishing system by a small number of highly profitable commercial publishers concentrating in science and technology journals. These publishers lock libraries into high-priced packages for combined print/electronic output, and contractually constrain libraries’ ability to manage expenditures. Libraries must invest a continually larger percentage of their budgets in providing access to these publications." (Thanks to LIS News.)
Posted by
Peter Suber at 2/06/2004 01:18:00 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.
