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Scholarly Communication Education Initiatives · 19
Survey Questions and Responses
The SPEC survey on Scholarly Communication Education Initiatives was designed by Kathleen A. New-
man, Biotechnology Librarian and UIUC Scholarly Communication Officer, University of Illinois at Urba-
na-Champaign, Deborah D. Blecic, Bibliographer for the Life and Health Sciences, University of Illinois
at Chicago, and Kimberly L. Armstrong, Assistant Director, CIC Center for Library Initiatives. These
results are based on data submitted by 73 of the 123 ARL member libraries (59%) by the deadline of May
30, 2007. The survey’s introductory text and questions are reproduced below, followed by the response
data and selected comments from the respondents.
Access to information, the foundation of scholarly communication, has traditionally been provided through academic journals,
research collections, and other print publications. Recent advances in digital technology, however, have revolutionized scholarly
communication, leading to innovations in the conduct of research as well as in the conveyance of ideas to readers. At the same
time, changing copyright laws, licensing rather than owning publications, and rapidly increasing subscription costs for scholarly
journals have limited access to and restricted uses of scholarly information.
ARL has been a leader in advocating the development of innovative systems that offer barrier-free access to research and
educational resources. Libraries, research institutions, scholarly societies, commercial publishers, and others are experimenting
with a variety of models to provide digital, online, unfettered access to scholarly information. A number of business models
have emerged utilizing different approaches to handling publication costs, managing collections, and providing user access.
Despite variations, however, the goal is the same: to develop more efficient, economical, and accessible models for research and
scholarly communication.
Scholars face an array of options in the current environment and their actions impact the process of scholarly communication.
Librarians have sought to inform their communities about scholarly communication issues such as author rights management,
open access, and journal costs through activities such as teaching, Web sites, symposia, and workshops to help create change.
The purpose of this survey is to find out what kind of initiatives ARL member libraries have used or plan to use to educate
faculty, researchers, administrators, students, and library staff at their institutions about scholarly communication issues.

Scholarly Communication Education Initiatives · 17
a coherent SC program with a committee dedicated
to coordinating the activities and the communica-
tions to support them.” Another commented that
they would like all of their librarians to add SC
components to their bibliographic instruction ef-
forts.
None of the respondents indicated directly
that they had success on the biggest challenge—
alleviating faculty concerns about the effects of
open access publishing on promotion and tenure.
However, at least one institution has passed a reso-
lution encouraging it’s faculty to publish OA when
feasible and several respondents noted that there is
increased support for OA publishing. Both of these
outcomes suggest that there are some subtle chang-
es going on in the long-standing scholarly com-
munication paradigms. To be sure, the researchers
are concerned about the future of their scholarly
societies, but several respondents noted success in
getting the editors of scholarly journals to consider
going OA with their journals.
Conclusion
Clearly, scholarly communication education is
a changing and growing area of activity for ARL
member libraries. Ten years ago, SC education
mostly focused on fair use and copyright restric-
tions. Now, open access, authors rights manage-
ment, institutional repositories, and the economics
of scholarly publishing are the topics of these edu-
cation initiatives. As many survey respondents feel
they are still early in the process of developing their
programs, the coming years will likely see many
further initiatives in this arena. However, unlike
other library initiatives, the library alone does not
have control over the outcomes of scholarly com-
munication education efforts. The economic engine
that is scholarly communication has many players
in addition to libraries—faculty, researchers, com-
mercial publishers, and scholarly societies—and
is also influenced by government regulations. The
efforts of libraries to affect change are only one of
many factors at work.