Washington, DC -- The Members of the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS) met with the library directors of the Big 12 Plus (Libraries in the Heartland) on April 8, 1998, at the Linda Hall Library, Kansas City, Missouri. During this meeting Provost David E. Shulenburger, University of Kansas, outlined the problem of the imbalance between the funds accorded to research libraries and the volume of scholarly output these libraries are expected to purchase and manage.
The disturbing facts are: Between 1986 and 1996, the consumer price index increased 44 percent, while the cost of monographs increased by 62 percent, and the cost of scholarly journals increased 148 percent -- more than three times the rate of inflation. According to Provost Shulenburger, "America's universities and colleges budgets would have to increase 70 percent if we were to buy the same proportion of serials and monographs as we did in 1986. Due to inflation in price and in publications available, we would need an acquisitions budget 2.5 times that of our existing acquisition budget."
The Commission also heard Duane Webster, Executive Director, Association of Research Libraries, describe the expanding publication volume and runaway acquisition costs. "To do nothing," Webster stated, "will mean more rapidly accelerating costs, greater commercial control, and, in the end, less access to scholarly communications."
Summarizing the session, Dean of Libraries James F. Williams II, University of Colorado at Boulder, stated, "This is the first of a series of national conversations. We ask the Commission to leverage its voice and to 'raise the volume' on conversations addressing the effective management of intellectual property in order to protect and promote scholarly communication. Use the Commission's authority to hold hearings to flesh out the problems and raise the visibility, nationally and internationally, on this issue on behalf of the people that NCLIS represent -- the people of the United States."
Acknowledging the grave danger facing long-term access to scholarly research, Commissioner Frank Lucchino suggested framing the problems to make them easily, and clearly, understood by Members of Congress and others.
Commissioner Walter Anderson stated, "Scholarly communications have a great impact on the future of our students. By giving our students the past and present, we insure their future."
Following the briefing, NCLIS Members unanimously agreed to, "Accept the challenge of maintaining access to significant research and scholarship at a time where both the volume and price of information have increased nearly threefold in the last decade."
Chairperson Jeanne Hurley Simon welcomed the challenge, stating, "Although the problems confront all of higher education, nowhere is the dilemma more acute than in the nation's research universities and their libraries. It is the Commission's responsibility to appraise the adequacies and deficiencies of current library and information resources and services and evaluate the effectiveness of current library and information science programs. We rise to meet this challenge."
As a first step toward meeting the "challenge", Simon established a working group to address the increasing costs of scholarly research material in academic and research libraries. Members of the working group are Jeanne Simon, NCLIS Chairperson; NCLIS Commissioners Martha Gould, Joan Challinor, Mary Furlong, and José-Marie Griffiths; Carol Henderson, American Library Association (or other designated ALA representative); Peyton Neal, Information Industry Association; Carolyn Snyder, Chair, Big 12 Plus Library Consortium; and Duane Webster, Association of Research Libraries. Additional members may be appointed.
The mission of the Big 12 Plus Consortium is to improve the quantity and quality of library services and resources available on the individual campuses of each member institution through joint action and collaboration. The current 17 members, located in the Heartland from Southern Illinois to Utah, form a consortium of research libraries with common interests in programs related to information access, document delivery, distance learning, new information technologies, and cooperative collection development.
The U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science is a permanent, independent agency of the Federal government charged by Public Law 91-345 to advise the President and Congress on national and international library and information policies and plans.