He observed that the licensing regime is very different from the statutory regime that governs acquisition and use of print materials, and that all parties publishers, libraries, and users are feeling their way through the complexities of this new environment. Lucier noted that President Atkinson has expressed strong interest in seeing UC take leadership in digital scholarly communication. To this end, Lucier has been working with a small group of major research institutions and publishing associations, with the assistance of the Council on Library and Information Resources, as well as having discussions with UC faculty who have approached him with regard to their digital publishing projects, plans and interests. Institutional collaboration is essential. Strategies and solutions will vary among disciplines.
Technology can improve the system.
Failure to act now will lead to undesirable consequences. There was substantial agreement that, from the faculty perspective, costs and budgets are secondary concerns the key issue is access. Christ and Varian felt that it was important to focus first on the development of an unfiltered preprint service, and make every attempt to avoid becoming mired in the peer review issues. While it is important to position this initiative so that UC as an institution is not responsible for assessment, provision for assessment must be made in the design. Look for partnerships with scholarly and professional societies to address this issue.