4 January 1999

Rick Johnson
SPARC Enterprise Director
21 Dupont Circle, NW
Suite 800
Washington, DC
USA

Dear Rick/Colleagues,

This letter is to express warmest support for SPARC from SCONUL (the Standing Conference of National and University Libraries). SCONUL is the professional association representing the directors of library services in all the universities of the United Kingdom and Ireland, as well as the directors of the major national libraries of both countries.

Like our colleagues in the USA and Canada, we have watched with dismay over the past twenty years as the prices of scholarly journals have sky-rocketed higher than ordinary inflation. Our budgets have been unable to match the rises in price, yet our constituencies rightly demand that scholarly journals be held in our libraries as a vital part of the research and communication process.

We have tried various means of tackling the problem but have achieved only modest palliatives. We recognise that an alliance of librarians and the scholars we serve represents the best chance to bring price-rises under control and permit the flow of publication that everybody needs.

SPARC is such an alliance, and we are glad to have joined as an affiliate member. We are pleased too to support SPARC in whatever practical ways we can.

With every good wish

Yours sincerelyToby Bainton
Secretary of SCONUL
Standing Conference of National and University Libraries
102 Euston Street
London NW1 2HA
sconul@mailbox.ulcc.ac.uk
http://www.sconul.ac.uk