Martha Whitehead
President, Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL)
Vice-Provost and University Librarian, Queen’s University
Brian Owen
Associate University Librarian; Managing Director of the Public Knowledge Project
Simon Fraser University
The scholarly communications landscape is on the cusp of transformative change. Many factors are converging: the continuing impact of digital technology on teaching and research, the growing expertise of academic libraries in utilizing and supporting technology-based initiatives, the move towards policies of open access, the oligopoly of international academic publishers and the financial constraints of university budgets. In Canada and worldwide, universities need to decide how best to invest in scholarly communications to support research today. This session will report on a recent Canadian Association of Research Libraries White Paper “CUSP: Canadian Universities and Sustainable Publishing” that was released in February, 2016. The purpose of this paper was to outline the issues and potential paths forward, for discussion and planning with researchers and administrators of Canadian universities. Our common goal is to enable research results to be as widely distributed and accessible as possible, internationally, in high quality publishing venues at the lowest possible costs. Are there national strategies and models that can effectively sustain open access publishing, not just in Canada but elsewhere?