The Libraries of the University of California (UC) are seeking transformative agreements with publishers such that access to the research of UC faculty is open to all, not limited to those who can afford it. In February 2019, the UC Libraries withdrew from negotiations with publisher Elsevier due to lack of progress, and in July, Elsevier cut off access to current content for all UC campuses.
The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) expresses strong support for the UC Libraries in their efforts to initiate change and expand access to research. While ARL member library approaches to transformative change may vary, ARL applauds UC’s commitment to the values and vision they have articulated even at the expense of disruption.
Libraries and publishers play vital roles in the scholarly communications ecosystem, and they are as interwoven as they are essential to produce and disseminate vetted, peer-reviewed research that advances humanity and improves quality of life. Scholars now and in the future count on this ecosystem to be robust and sustainable.
In this age of innovative digital technologies, the Association of Research Libraries advocates for libraries to explore and invest in new approaches to scholarly communications with all their partners - teaching and research faculty, administrators, and publishers - to improve the research communications ecosystem. As well as leveraging new open infrastructures, libraries are working to change existing publishing models to improve access to information.
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