In support of its commitment to work towards reshaping the system of scholarly communications, ACRL takes action to advocate for open access and other important issues. Below are examples of ACRL's participation in activities geared towards creating change.
Letter to Organizers of SCOAP3
ACRL expresses interest and support in the Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing in Particle Physics' effort to facilitate open access publishing in High Energy Physics. ACRL “welcomes this experiment in new funding models and recognizes its potential to inform scholarly publishing more globally” and “believes that SCOAP3 is a valuable addition to the heterogeneous mix of strategies being undertaken by scholars, publishers, libraries and others to ensure the future of high-quality journals.” Additionally, the association encourages its members to consider joining the SCOAP3 effort. To learn more about why libraries of all sizes should support SCOAP3, listen to a podcast interview with John Ober, Director of Policy, Planning & Outreach at California Digital Library, and Kim Douglas, University Librarian at California Institute of Technology. Ober is a current co-chair, and Douglas an incoming co-chair, of ACRL’s Scholarly Communications Committee.
Letters to US Senator Harkin, Representative Obey and HHS Secretary Leavitt on NIH public access policy implementation (February 2008)
ACRL joined with 7 other national organizations to thank these key members of Congress and the Secretary of Health and Human Services for their support of the NIH Public Access Policy. The letter also reiterates our commitment to the policy and its timely implementation.
Letter to US Senators opposing Inhofe amendments (October 2007)
ACRL Joined with 7 other national organizations to urge Senators oppose both of Senator Inhofe's amendments (to the FY 2008 Senate Labor, Health and Human Services and Education and Related Agencies Appropriations bill (S.1710). These amendments would severely curtail the ability of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to effectively make the results of the research it funds
Letter to US Senators supporting NIH policy (September 2007)
ACRL joined with 6 other national organizations to affirm our support language in the FY08 Labor/HHS/Education and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill (S.1710) that directs the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to strengthen its Public Access Policy and require NIH-funded researchers to deposit copies of NIH-funded research articles into the online archive of the National Library of Medicine.
Letters to the US Senate and US House supporting NIH public access policy (July 2007)
ACRL joined with 6 other national organizations to support language on the NIH Public Access Policy included in the FY08 Labor, Health, and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies appropriations bills.Comments on single firm conduct (November 2006)
The Information Access Alliance (IAA) — representing ACRL and 6 other national library associations — submitted comments for the ongoing Joint Hearings on Single-Firm Conduct and Antitrust Law being held by the US Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission. The IAA has focused on activities it believes are reducing effective competition in scholarly publishing and creating barriers to new entrants into these markets. The IAA believes that single-firm anticompetitive conduct accounts at least in some part for the serious problems confronting libraries today.Letter Encouraging Department of Justice to Oppose Wiley/Blackwell Merger (November 2006)
Letter submitted by the Information Access Alliance to the US Department of Justice to oppose sale of Blackwell Publishing by John Wiley and Sons. "We are deeply concerned that this transaction will exacerbate market dysfunctions and result in further reduction in access to critical research information that fuels the entire higher education and research enterprise."Letter encouraging hearings on the Federal Research Public Access Act of 2006 (July 2006)
PDF of a letter submitted by the Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries, the American Association of Law Libraries, ACRL, ALA, the Association of Research Libraries, the Medical Library Association, the Special Libraries Association, and SPARC to Senator Collins encouraging the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs to hold hearings on the Federal Research Public Access Act of 2006.Comments on the European Commission's "Study on the Economic and Technical Evolution of the Scientific Publication Markets in Europe” (May 2006)
Letter submitted by the Information Access Alliance to the European Commission commending the commission on its "Study on the Economic and Technical Evolution of the Scientific Publication Markets in Europe.” The EC issued a summary of the responses received on October 6, 2006.Response to the Research Councils’ UK draft position statement on improved access to research outputs (August 2005)
Letter and memorandum submitted by the American Association of Law Libraries, ALA, Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries, ACRL, Association of Research Libraries, Medical Library Association, Public Knowledge, and SPARC in response to the Research Councils’ UK June 28, 2005 draft position statement on their emerging views on the issue of improved access to research outputs. (also available in PDF)
Letter to NIH regarding implementation of new open access policy (February 2005)
Letter from ACRL to the National Institutes of Health supporting the new open access policy with suggestions for improvements.Letter to HHS regarding implementation of new NIH open access policy (February 2005)
Letter from ACRL to the Secretary of Health and Human Services supporting the National Institutes of Health's new open access policy with suggestions for improvements.
Letter to NIH supporting "Enhanced Public Access to NIH Research Information" (November 2004)
Letter from ACRL to the National Institutes of Health supporting "Enhanced Public Access to NIH Research Information" NOT-OD-04-064, which proposes to provide free public access through PubMed Central to articles that result from NIH-funded research.Letter to NIH Encouraging Support of Open Access (August 2004)
Letter by ACRL to the National Institutes of Health encouraging them to support open access to journal articles documenting agency-funded research.Letter to NIH Encouraging Support of Open Access (January 2004; PDF)
Letter, sent on behalf of ALA, ACRL, ARL, SPARC, the Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries, and the Medical Library Association, to the National Institutes of Health encouraging them to support open access to journal articles documenting agency-funded research.US Response to the UK Inquiry into STM Publishing (February 2004; PDF)
Letter, sent on behalf of ALA, ACRL, ARL, SPARC, the American Association of Law Libraries, the Association of Academic Health Science Libraries, Public Knowledge, and the Medical Library Association, to the Science and Technology Committee of the UK parliament in response to its inquiry into scientific, technical, and medical publishing.