From: "Brunner, Marta" <martab AT library.ucla.edu>
To: <ohp AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: [OA-monographs] FW: The Chronicle: Free Our Libraries, Cry University Presidents
Date: Fri, 3 Oct 2008 15:50:02 -0700
Title: FW: The Chronicle: Free Our Libraries, Cry University Presidents
Hi all,
I wanted to pass on this white paper that was referenced in the Chronicle of Higher Education. None of this will be news to us, but it is nice to hear it coming from the mouths of university presidents.
Presidents of major universities want more library materials distributed online, without prohibitive charges.
At the Universal Access Digital Library Summit, held on September 24 and 25 at the Boston Public Library, Mark Huddleston, president of the University of New Hampshire, Peter Nicholls, provost of the University of Connecticut, and Jack Wilson, president of the University of Massachusetts, called for new approaches to the digitization of library collections that will allow access for all. The presidents urged libraries to halt what they described as an assault on the public’s right to knowledge, done in the name of copyright.
The meeting, which was convened by the Boston Library Consortium, also included the presentations of “Free Our Libraries! Why We Need a New Approach to Putting Library Collections Online,” a white paper<http://www.blc.org/news/BLC_summit_white_paper_9-29-08.pdf> by Richard K. Johnson, senior advisor to the Association of Research Libraries. In the paper, Mr. Johnson argues that libraries need to come up with new financing strategies, coordinate their actions, and adopt “forward-looking” principles to guide book and journal digitization projects. —Josh Fischman