Annual Report for the Year – Designed Designed and Printed by Printing, Cambridge the Printing Business of University Cambridge Press
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www.cambridgeprinting.org www.cambridgeprinting.org annual report for the year – Designed and printed by Printing, Cambridge the printing business of University Cambridge Press. Designed and printed by Printing, Cambridge the printing business of University Cambridge Press. annual report for the year – highlights 2 Review of the University Library community. The positive outcome of the review was welcomed by the Library Syndicate, and the specific The General Board of the Faculties conducts a recommendations contained in it will be considered regular programme of reviewing academic and other during the coming academic year. departments in the University. This year it was the turn of the University Library. The Review Committee was chaired by Professor Roger Parker Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003 (Music) and consisted of Dr Christopher Howe The passing of the Legal Deposit Libraries Act (Biochemistry), Professor John Morrill (History), represented a major development in the process of Professor Jeremy Sanders (Chemistry) and Dr Reg bringing legal deposit legislation into line with the Carr (Director of University Library Services and current pattern of publishing. The Private Member’s Bodley’s Librarian, University of Oxford). Bill, introduced by Chris Mole, MP, in December The Committee expressed great satisfaction with , passed all its Parliamentary hurdles and the way the Library was run and with the high received the Royal Assent in October . For quality of service provided by Library staff ‘under printed publications it reaffirms the previous very difficult financial circumstances’. It noted the legislation of in respect of the University increasing demand for electronic resources (electronic Library and the other five legal-deposit libraries in journals, reference sources, databases, etc.) at a time the British Isles; its novel aspect is the enshrinement when there was no diminution in the publication of, of the principle that electronic publications and other and need for, traditional books and journals in paper non-print materials will be deposited in the future form. It also noted that there had been a ‘relentless under secondary legislation. This will ensure that and unavoidable’ growth in the volume and costs of such publications can be saved as part of the national key parts of the Library’s acquisitions and services, published archive and become an important resource set against a growing shortfall in funding. The for future generations of researchers and scholars. Committee acknowledged that, in the present The new Act builds on the strengths of a voluntary financial situation of the University, it would be scheme introduced in January between the unrealistic to request the major funding increase that legal-deposit libraries and the publishers, which was the Library urgently requires, but recommended that, designed to capture offline material before legislation at the least, the Library should be spared further cuts, was enacted. The Act will be implemented through a even if this resulted in a further drain on other series of Regulations, of which the first two will resources. It was ironic that the Committee’s report, probably deal with offline publications, such as CD- containing these recommendations, was received in ROMs and microforms, and with electronic journals. the Library in the same week as notification of a Regulations will be proposed by the Secretary of further cut in the Library’s budget as part of the State for Culture, Media and Sport, following a University-wide ‘savings exercise’. statutory process of consultation with affected It also suggested that greater co-ordination parties. This in turn will be preceded by the work of between all the libraries of the University could lead an Advisory Panel, to be established by Government to some savings, without a significant reduction in as an independent public body, to advise the the quality of service provided to the University Secretary of State on the need for, and the shape of, specific Regulations. In advance of the establishment of the Advisory Panel, the Joint Committee on Voluntary Deposit (which includes representatives of all the legal deposit libraries) will continue its work British Library British as a forum for collaborative and voluntary endeavour between publishers and libraries. As plans for the introduction of the legislation proceed, the Library Syndicate will need to consider the implications – both the benefits and potential restrictions on access – for the Cambridge user community. Lynne Brindley, Chief Executive of the British Library, The journals crisis and Chris Mole, MP, who introduced The scholarly communication chain is a complex web the Private Member’s Bill on of inter-relations, vested interests and accepted legal deposit. practice and, as the library world has long known, it 3 At the reception in the try to ensure that the limited resources available are House of Commons in December to used in the most effective way. mark the Royal Assent In March the Library organised two to the Legal Deposit workshops, one designed for scholars in the humanities Libraries Act : l-r.: Peter Fox, University and social sciences and the other for scientists, and each Librarian; Berkeley of them was opened by a Pro-Vice-Chancellor. Both Greenwood, workshops addressed the question of whether there is Parliamentary lobbyist; John Tuck, Head of indeed a crisis in the mechanisms of scholarly British Collections, communication. Hardly surprisingly, it was clear that British Library the crisis was much more widely perceived in the British Library British sciences, and, whilst there was support for the aims of is virtually impossible for one element of this chain to the open-access movement and other initiatives to exert sufficient leverage to challenge the status quo. move away from the current model, many participants The announcement in by the House of remained sceptical of their success in the face of the Commons Select Committee on Science and economic power of the large publishers and the Technology of an enquiry into the problems facing pressure from universities and the funding councils for academic libraries with respect to purchasing scientific scientists to publish in high-impact-factor journals in journals was, therefore, a very welcome development order both to advance their own careers and to obtain which may be seen as a further incremental shift in the funding for their research. The humanities scholars and balance of public opinion. The Committee received social scientists expressed support for further extensive written evidence and also held four oral investigation of better coordination of periodical hearings, at one of which evidence was given by the collections and resources, and the involvement of the Cambridge University Librarian, along with the Chief colleges was seen to be an important element in any Executive of the British Library and representatives of future strategy for Cambridge. JISC and the University of Hertfordshire. Its report The scheme to co-ordinate journal subscriptions was published in July with the title Scientific and jointly manage budgets, initially involving the publications: free for all?. University Library, the School of Biological Sciences The Report stresses that changes are needed in and the Department of Chemistry, had some limited the way scientific research is published and accessed. success, in that duplicated print titles to a value of The MPs rejected the publishers’ view that the about £, a year were cancelled, allowing present publishing model is working well and that subscriptions to be started for some new titles that the market should be left to change itself. Despite were in heavy demand. However this saving was noting some unanswered questions with proposed more than offset by an increase of £, in the new models, the Report strongly concluded that ‘the cost of the remaining titles in the subjects covered current model for scientific publishing is by the scheme. The demand continues to grow from unsatisfactory’ and recommended the dual open- scientists wanting access to a wider range of access approach of repositories and open-access journals, especially through electronic delivery to journals. In particular, it recommended that public their desktop or laboratory. Within the budget funding bodies should require authors to retain currently available to the Library, not only is there is copyright in their articles, that they should require no prospect of this demand being met, but an authors to deposit a copy of their final papers in exercise to reduce the number of journal sub- suitable repositories (such as DSpace, being scriptions will have to be undertaken in –. The developed in Cambridge by the University Library price rises experienced over the last couple of and the Computing Service) and that they should decades show no signs of diminishing – around % make funds available to pay publication charges in overall was noted this year, against an RPI of a third open-access journals. The academic community now of that, and an actual decrease in the University has an opportunity to take control of the reporting Library’s budget. The figure of a % price rise, of research and introduce change along the lines worrying though it is, hides some extraordinary recommended in the Report without leaving it to increases: the price notified to Cambridge for the Government or to publishers either to take change Nature group of titles, for instance, represented an forward