Association of Research Libraries (ARL®)

In the fall of 1991, the Association of American Universities (AAU) began a series of discussions with the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) about the opportunities provided by electronic communication and computer-based information networks to address the economic pressures facing research libraries and advance university missions of teaching and research. It seemed clear that the rapidly developing electronic environment could provide university faculties and students with new options for the collection and dissemination of scholarly information, options that could both expand access to university-generated information and reduce the unit costs of that access. Over the longer term, electronic communication and computing technology could provide fundamentally new ways of collaborating in the conduct of research, as well as the dissemination of its results.

It also seemed clear from these AAU/ARL discussions that the electronic environment was unlikely to evolve optimally to support the missions of universities unless the universities themselves became directly involved in shaping that environment, designing options carefully and pursuing their implementation systematically.

The AAU Research Libraries Project was designed for this purpose. Initiated by the AAU member presidents and chancellors in April 1992, the project has engaged the full range of university expertise to develop recommendations for action at the national and institutional levels to assure that the perspectives of research universities can play a defining role in the evolution of national information network policies and practices affecting university education, research, and scholarship.

The work of the project has been carried out through three task forces:

1. Acquisition and Distribution of Foreign Language and Area Studies Materials
2. A National Strategy for Managing Scientific and Technological Information
3. Intellectual Property Rights in an Electronic Environment.

The task forces, comprising university administrators, librarians, and faculty members, have reported to a Project Steering Committee of AAU presidents and chancellors. The initial members of the steering committee were:

President Hanna H. Gray, University of Chicago, Chair
President Myles Brand, University of Oregon, Co-Chair
Chancellor Richard C. Atkinson, University of California, San Diego
President John Lombardi, University of Florida
President Martin Massengale, University of Nebraska
President Charles M. Vest, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Myles Brand assumed the role of chair in July 1993, with the departure of Hanna Gray from the committee in anticipation of her leaving the Chicago presidency.

AAU has worked in close collaboration with the ARL on the project, from its initial conception through its completion. ARL has provided exceptionally strong staff support for the three task forces.

The reports of the three task forces included here were presented to the AAU membership at this year's spring meeting, and were unanimously endorsed by the membership on April 19.

The completion of this project represents a starting point for the implementation phase of what must be a continuing effort to shape the electronic environment to support university teaching and research. We owe an extraordinary debt of gratitude to the dedicated work of the members of the task forces, whose considerable commitment of time and effort in pursuit of common purposes has provided the higher education community with a comprehensive set of actions to undertake in developing this new scholarly communications frontier. The best way we can show our gratitude to task force members is to begin the work necessary to turn their recommendations into new national and institutional policies supporting scholarly communication, and AAU has begun developing the mechanisms by which the task force recommendations will be acted on.

I also want to thank The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, whose generous support made this project possible. The Mellon Foundation has long played a leading role in assisting universities and their research libraries to develop new ways to meet the mounting challenges confronting those libraries. Indeed, in many ways the AAU Research Libraries Project builds on the work of the Foundation's study, University Libraries and Scholarly Communication. Published in November 1992, this thoughtful, comprehensive analysis of research libraries examined a number of ways in which the evolution of electronic networks and computing technology might generate new options for addressing library pressures.

The translation of recommendations into policies will be neither simple nor direct. Readers of these reports will note that although some recommendations are quite specific, many identify further questions to be answered, additional issues to be considered. I hope that these reports can serve as a catalyst to broad collaboration within the academic community--in this country, in North America, and internationally--on efforts to develop an electronic environment providing enhanced support for teaching and research.

Cornelius J. Pings
President
Association of American Universities