This is an endless and evolving topic, but there is one aspect I have been thinking about the last few weeks. In principle many of us support Open Access to the results of research, particularly where that research is publicly funded. Founded during a period of spiraling journal costs, SPARC has played a seminal role in bringing together researchers, librarians and administrators to that end. In particular, researchers are increasingly aware of the importance of retaining copyright to their research results, and the value of online accessibility in the all-important impact factors which play a key role in tenure and promotion.

Yet to what extent do libraries really put their money where their mouth is? Sure, we may provide access to DOAJ and to individual free online publications. And the very interesting JANUS conference at Cornell in October 2005 raised the possibility that libraries use a portion of the materials budget, in essence as venture capital, to support repositories. They backed off in the end, suggesting that there was no clear direction at this time. Institutional repositories focus at the article level, but research journals continue to be the key form of currency in scholarly reputation outside the humanities. Yet the conference got it right in suggesting that peer review is a key aspect of the process.

I believe it is time for research libraries to explore this potential more seriously and assiduously, through organizations in Canada such as CRKN and CARL and through organizations such as SSHRC and through the Synergies and PKP projects. In fact, what we need to dedicate is time and attention to the issue rather than large sums of money. The JANUS conference talked in terms of $50,000 per year per US research library. A Canadian equivalent would be small potatoes compared to our overall electronic journals budgets.