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Posted at the request of of Miriam Blake, Los Alamos National Laboratory:

Federal library colleagues:

Many of you have heard discussions about the SCOAP3 initiative to create a consortium to support open access publishing in particle physics.  To date, 66.5% of the needed pledges have been raised worldwide (including the US) to support the SCOAP3 model.  Pledges are not commitments of funds, but simply an expression of interest and an estimated calculation of your share should the effort successfully move forward.

Things are getting to the wire now.  Salvatore Mele, who is leading the SCOAP3 effort from CERN, said it this way:
"  As things stand, there is a non-negligible risk that the entire
operation might not be successful: we must wedge SCOAP3 in the
discussion of the 2011 pricing that publishers will start in house
sometime in spring. The large Asian and South-American economies which should complete the SCOAP3 support have made it clear that without a compact support in the US they would not see a reason to move... so I'm coming back to you a last time: for as strange as it can seem for such a complex and vast network that we've built, it is the support and action from a few folks you are in touch with that will make a difference between success and failure."

The success of the SCOAP3 proposal depends on the full support of U.S. libraries, and that includes federal libraries. Many of the DOE Libraries have engaged, but we have not seen the commitment from the rest of the federal library community.  So I'm taking this last chance to ask for your support - this is another emerging model for supporting open access, and I believe we must take the bull by the horns.

SPARC, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition and ACRL, the Association of College and Research Libraries, have prepared a FAQ aiming at supporting the decision-making process for additional U.S. libraries to sign an Expression of Interest in support of SCOAP3.
http://www.arl.org/sparc/publications/papers/SCOAP3_09april.shtml 

I encourage you to read the FAQ and think about how your support can make a difference. I'm happy to answer questions directly - feel free to contact me. And, of course, if you want to join on the SCOAP3 initiative, let me know or contact Salvatore Mele [log in to unmask]> directly.  I know he'd love to hear from you too.

Regards,
Miriam

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Miriam Blake
Research Library Director
Los Alamos National Laboratory
505.667.4448