Contact: Larra Clark
Media Relations Manager
312-280-5043
For Immediate Release
August 30, 2004
Association of College and Research Libraries supports
open access to National Institutes of Health-funded research
CHICAGO-The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) strongly supports reforms that will make federally funded biomedical research openly accessible and available on line and at no extra cost to the American public.
ACRL has sent letters to Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and to members of Congress encouraging them to ensure that peer-reviewed articles on taxpayer-funded research at NIH become fully accessible. The letter to Dr. Zerhouni is available online at http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlissues/scholarlycomm/nihltr.htm.
In addition, ACRL has joined the Alliance for Taxpayer Access, an informal coalition of libraries, patient and health policy advocates, and other stakeholders who support reforms that will make publicly funded biomedical research accessible to the public. ACRL also encourages libraries and institutions to join the Alliance.
Today the vast majority of research funded with public dollars is available only through increasingly costly journal subscriptions (often costing thousands of dollars annually for a single journal), institutional licenses (more than a million dollars annually for many universities), or per article purchases (as much as $30 per article). Alliance supporters believe the current system of subscription-based access to scientific research is economically unsustainable and effectively impedes the dissemination and use of research that has been paid for with public dollars.
Libraries and institutions wishing to join the Alliance for Taxpayer Access will find more information on its Web site: www.taxpayeraccess.org. A membership form is available at: http://www.taxpayeraccess.org/member.html
Members of the Alliance for Taxpayer Access, at formation (in alphabetical order), include:
AIDS Action Baltimore
AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition
American Association of Law Libraries
American Library Association
American Medical Student Association
Arthritis Foundation
Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum
Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries
Association of College & Research Libraries
Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs
Association of Research Libraries
Association of Southeastern Research Libraries
Autosomal Recessive Polycystic Kidney Disease and Congenital Hepatic
Fibrosis Alliance
Boston College Libraries
Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation
Coalition for Heritable Disorders of Connective Tissue
Colorado State University Libraries
Conquer Fragile X Syndrome
Down Syndrome Treatment and Research Foundation
Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered
Genetic Alliance
International Mosaic Down Syndrome Association
IsoDicentric 15 Exchange, Advocacy & Support
Medical Library Association
National Alliance for Autism Research
National Coalition for PKU & Allied Disorders
National Fragile X Foundation
National Tay-Sachs & Allied Diseases Association, Inc.
New England Biolabs
Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy
Prader-Willi Syndrome Association
Public Knowledge
PXE International
Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition
Spina Bifida Association of America
Tourette Syndrome Association
University of Connecticut Libraries
Wayne State University College of Nursing
ACRL is a division of the American Library Association, representing 12,000 academic and research librarians and interested individuals. ACRL is the only individual membership organization in North America that develops programs, products and services to meet the unique needs of academic and research librarians. Its initiatives enable the higher education community to understand the role that academic and research libraries play in the teaching, learning and research environments.