From the College Librarian Journal Costs

As the costs of scientific journals continue to increase at a rate far outpacing inflation, and as the profit margins of large scientific publishers remain extraordinarily high, pressure has been mounting throughout the country to make increasingly unaffordable but crucial literature available not only to those in the academy but to the larger public as well.

The most interesting initiative to date is a bill sponsored by Senators Joe Lieberman (Independent-Connecticut) and John Cornyn (Republican-Texas), which would require a good deal of scientific literature to be made available free-of-charge on the internet. The "Federal Research Public Access Act" (S.2695) mandates that large federal agencies (i.e. those allocating more than $100 million per year in research awards) make articles published in refereed journals and funded from their coffers freely available on the web.

Such a law, of course, would be a tremendous boon to the academic community, particularly to liberal arts institutions that cannot always afford subscriptions to the expensive journals that currently have a lock on such literature.

The bill's prospects remain in doubt. Leading universities and liberal arts colleges (including St. Olaf) have signed statements of support. The American Association of Publishers opposes the legislation.

Advocates may express support at http://www.arl.org/sparc/advocacy/frpaa/highered.html .

Bryn Geffert
College Librarian