Home ACRLs 2005-2006 Scholarly Communication Agenda

ACRL Scholarly Communications Agenda for 2005-2006

The ACRL Scholarly Communications Committee has approved the following agenda to guide the ACRL scholarly communications initiative for the 2005-2006 year.

Staffing:
ACRL has recently hired Kara Malenfant as its Scholarly Communications – Government Relations Specialist. During the first part of the year she will be oriented and trained on scholarly communications issues and she will develop working relationships with staff at ARL, SPARC, the ALA Washington Office, and other organizations working on scholarly communications issues. She will also begin work on ACRL's various scholarly communications activities.

Educational Work:
The ongoing goals of the educational aspect of the scholarly communications initiative are to increase knowledge, raise awareness, and encourage action on the part of academic librarians, faculty, and higher education administrators in reforming the system of scholarly communication. Specific activities during the year will include the following:

•  Cooperate with ARL in planning and holding the first ACRL-ARL Scholarly Communications Institute in July 2006.

•  Cooperate with SPARC in programming for the SPARC-ACRL Forum at both the midwinter and annual conferences.

•  Continue to refine the ACRL Scholarly Communications Tool Kit, which was made public in April 2004.

•  Coordinate ongoing scholarly communications column for C&RL News.

•  Coordinate ongoing topics and presentations for the ACRL scholarly communications discussion group.

•  Maintain the SCHOLCOMM listserv and keep discussions active.

•  Speak and make presentations on scholarly communications issues in various venues.

•  Begin initial planning discussions for developing a train-the-trainer approach to scholarly communications advocacy.

Advocacy:
The primary purpose of ACRL's advocacy work is to help shape national policy in accordance with the principals of the scholarly communications initiative. Specific activities will include:

•  Participate actively in the Open Access Working Group, an alliance composed of the American Association of Law Libraries, ALA, Association of Academic Health Science Libraries, ACRL, ARL, Creative Commons, Medical Library Association, Open Society Institute, Public Knowledge, Public Library of Science, SLA, and SPARC. Work to build recognition of the benefits of open access journal publishing and author self-archiving; build Congressional and federal agency acceptance of the principle of public access to the results of taxpayer-funded research.

•  Continue to participate in the Information Access Alliance, the cooperative anti-merger coalition involving the American Association of Law Libraries, ACRL, ALA, ARL, and MLA. Support work on antitrust and anticompetitive practices in selected states.

•  Continue to participate in efforts to increase the effectiveness of ACRL advocacy at the national level.

•  Monitor international scholarly communications developments.

•  Respond to particular advocacy needs and issues as they arise.

Coalition Building:
Goals are to build on ACRL's existing partnerships and liaison relationships in order to advance change in the system of scholarly communications.

•  Integrate ACRL Scholarly Communications-Government Relations Specialist into existing cooperative relationships.

•  Develop cooperation on scholarly communications issues across ALA and its divisions.

•  Work with the Council of Liaisons to incorporate action on scholarly communications issues into existing and developing liaison relationships, focusing in particular on the American Association of Community Colleges.

•  Continue to develop contacts and working relationships with librarian and higher educational organizations concerned about scholarly communications issues.

Research:
The primary objective of research work is to document the effects of scholarly communication crisis on all types of academic libraries and incorporate that information into the scholarly communications tool kit and other educational materials and programs.

•  Develop a process to solicit scholarly communications research topics from the ACRL membership on a regular basis.

•  As appropriate, revise and publicize the ACRL research agenda on scholarly communications issues.

Activities within ACRL:
The ACRL Scholarly Communications Committee and the ACRL Scholarly Communications-Government Relations Specialist will continue to develop working relationships with various units within ACRL.

•  Maintain ongoing relationships with ACRL committees concerned with issues related to scholarly communication.

•  Expand relationships with ACRL sections in order to further scholarly outreach to disciplinary organizations.

•  Work with ACRL units on particular advocacy issues as they emerge.