ACRL endorses call for urgent action to preserve scholarly electronic journals

For Immediate Release

February 14, 2006

CHICAGO * The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Board of Directors endorsed the statement "Urgent Action Needed to Preserve Scholarly Electronic Journals" (www.diglib.org/pubs/waters051015.htm) at its January 24, 2006, meeting in San Antonio.

Academic librarians, university administrators and others issued the statement October 15, 2005, after participating in a meeting in New York City to discuss electronic journal preservation.

ACRL recognizes that the electronic environment poses significant challenges for long-term preservation of, and access to, information. Since most libraries do not actually own and store the content of the journals they license in electronic form, new models for preservation must be developed. Scholars may face serious loss of access to published research if libraries do not adopt effective electronic journal preservation strategies. ACRL encourages all academic libraries to take action to preserve their electronic journal collections.

ACRL's Scholarly Communications Committee expects to support preservation of scholarly electronic journals by developing guidelines and effective practices for academic libraries.

ACRL is a division of the American Library Association (ALA), representing more than 13,000 academic and research librarians and interested individuals. ACRL is the only individual membership organization in North America that develops programs, products and services to meet the unique needs of academic and research librarians. Its initiatives enable the higher education community to understand the role that academic libraries play in the teaching, learning and research environments