Introduction

Over the last 20 years, growing dissatisfaction with the economics of the scholarly publishing system has led academic libraries – both individually and corporately – to seek alternative means of disseminating the knowledge created by the scholars within their communities. As libraries have assumed “publisherlike functions” by creating both institutional repositories and “formal” publishing venues (e.g., scholarly journals or presses), a primary focus of discussion within the academic community has been on the economics of these services: How can they address economic disparities in access to information? What impact will they have on traditional publishers? How can libraries create financially sustainable programs? How will new modes of distribution affect scholars’ ability to benefit from their own work (through promotion/tenure, royalties, etc.)? While these are important, and logical, questions, they only address two dimensions of library repository and publishing services – why they are important and how they will attempt to transform the scholarly communication system. Careful consideration of a third dimension – what legal and ethical responsibilities are assumed when offering “publisherlike” services – is also vital if libraries are to create scholarly communication programs that are respected and valued.

As context for this book’s exploration of academic libraries’ legal and ethical responsibilities as distributors and publishers of knowledge, this part will examine the evolution of libraries’ involvement within the scholarly communication system, and will discuss the need to create services that address concerns about the quality of open information.