Homepage for the LAUC Conference on Alternative Models for Scholarly Publishing





		The wide reach and power of the Internet, changes in academic, scholarly society, and commercial presses, and the soaring cost of information are changing the face of scholarly communications and publishing. Join members of the academic community, librarians, and other information professionals and publishers in a wide-ranging discussion of the issues and challenges facing academic, scholarly society, and commercial presses. Opening Remarks by University of California President Richard Atkinson Panel I: Trends in Scholarly Publishing Universities are both the primary producers and consumers of scholarly publications. How that information is produced, disseminated, acquired, and accessed has changed dramatically in recent years. Scholarly output has increased as more academics than ever are engaged in research and scholarship. At the same time, the cost of information has grown dramatically due to increased competition from commercial publishers. A concentration of publishing enterprises within the hands of a few multinationals has led to skyrocketing inflation. Many of the nation's major university research libraries are in a state of financial crisis as a result of declining collections budgets and diminished purchasing power. Universities are forced to seek new ways to acquire and provide access to scholarly information. This panel will consider the issues facing academic publishers in their efforts to maintain access to significant scholarship. What are some of the opportunities and challenges presented by emerging electronic technologies? What kinds of alternative models has the academic publishing community established to challenge commercial publishers? How have scholarly societies and university presses helped to redefine the scholarly publishing algorithm? How can digital technologies be used to promote and disseminate research and scholarship in higher education? Czeslaw Jan Grycz, Project Manager: TRES: The Virtual Theological Library on Theology, Religion, Ethics, and Society Lisa Brawley, Asst. Professor, Kent State University. Editor, Postmodern Culture Michael Keller, University Librarian; Director of Academic Information Resources; Publisher of HighWire Press. Vincent H. Resh, UC Berkeley Professor of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management (ESPM); Editor of the Annual Review of Entomology Panel II: The "Status" of Electronic Publishing: Overcoming Constraints on New Modes of Scholarly Communication The increasing use of electronic media is changing patterns of scholarly communication and discourse. Such changes promise to enhance scholarly productivity and innovation by increasing opportunities for collaboration, feedback and commentary and by decreasing delays in the publication process. Yet institutional acceptance of these new media often lags behind technological and scholarly developments. Many publishers discourage the "pre-publication" of materials through electronic dissemination and electronic publication does not always receive equal consideration in tenure, promotion and credentialing decisions to its print counterparts. As a result of these constraints, many authors remain hesitant to post their work in electronic formats. This panel will consider the question of what "status" should be granted to documents which have been published electronically. This question has implications for both the issues of what constitutes "scholarly" publishing and what constitutes "pre-publication." Panelists will include authors, publishers and administrators concerned with publication acceptance policies and promotion and tenure issues. Robin Peek, Professor, Library and Information Science, Simmons College Paul Ginsparg, Research Physicist, Los Alamos National Laboratory William Arms, Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI) Panel III: Future of Academic Research Libraries Academic research libraries are in a state of crisis following decades of inadequate collection budgets and soaring information costs. What strategic initiatives are university administrators and faculty, librarians and information professionals, and publishers taking to ensure that our libraries have a sustainable future, and will provide adequately for the information needs of their institutions? Panelists include top-level administrators of research libraries and academic library coalitions; all are involved in ground-breaking organizational and management activities that are pushing libraries and scholarly publishing "to the edge" and beyond to create a paradigm for the 21st century. Carla Stoffle, University Librarian, University of Arizona Kenneth Frazier, Director, University of Wisconsin-Madison General Library System and Chair, Steering Committee of the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, Association of Research Libraries Beverlee French, Associate Director, Shared Collections and Services, California Digital Library Tom Sanville, Director OhioLINK Graphic Design & Layout by Mary Scott Original mark-up by Pamela Prescott Updates by The Library Web Manager This page last updated 8/30/98