Scholarly Communication

A primary role of a research library is to offer their users the most efficient means of accessing to and preserving of the globally accumulated scholarly knowledge in their field of interest.

The present system of scholarly communication is far from ideal, and LIBER will support activities that harness the opportunities offered by modern technology to create improvement. During the period 2007-2010, LIBER will implement the following actions:

  1. As an early supporter of the Open Access movement, and having signed the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities in 2005, LIBER will continue to support this and future approaches to the improvement of access to scholarly literature.
  2. Through reciprocal representation on the LIBER and SPARC-Europe Boards, LIBER will continue to work closely with SPARC Europe in helping to develop its agenda and activities in the pursuit of change in the scholarly communications market, the support of competition, and the encouragement of new publishing models (in particular, open access models) that better serve the international researcher community.
  3. LIBER will continue actively to support the CERN Workshops on Innovations in Scholarly Communication held in Geneva and will play a major role in organising the next Workshop planned for 2009; and the Open Scholarship meetings, in which LIBER plays a major organising role, the second Workshop of which will be held in Southampton in 2008.
  4. LIBER will work with the Frankfurt Group and EBLIDA and the European Commission to find a means of lowering the effects of the level of VAT on electronic publications.
  5. LIBER will seek closer participation and the involvement of LIBER member institutions with European projects such as the DRIVER (Digital Repository Infrastructure Vision for European Research) Project.
  6. LIBER will seek to stimulate debate among its membership on issues to be resolved in the field of scholarly communications.

LIBER's Access Division works closely with a number of European partners to deliver Workshops which deal with emerging Open Access issues. The CERN Workshops on Innovations in Scholarly Communication are chaired by the Chair of the Access Division and provide a premier European focus for debate and dialogue with colleagues, including those from the Los Alamos National Laboratory Research Library.

The OAI5 Workshop in 2007 was the most successful of the series to date.

Open Scholarship is a companion series of Workshops, also chaired by the chair of the LIBER Access Division. These are based in the University of Glasgow and concentrate upon Open Access repositories. The first in the series was held on 18-20 October 2006 entitled Open Scholarship 2006: New Challenges for Open Access Repositories .

In matters concerning Scholarly Communication, the LIBER Access Division works closely with SPARC Europe, and the Division has membership on the SPARC Europe Board. SPARC Europe is an alliance of European research libraries, library organizations, and research institutions advocating change in the Scholarly Communications process.