About the Libraries

Scholarly Communication

"Scholarly communication" describes both the dissemination of and access to scholarship and research in a variety of formats and states of completion, such as published books or journal articles, research results and data sets, and drafts of papers. In recent years the concept of scholarly communication has also begun to connote faculty collaborating with publishers, librarians, and others, in solving the grievous problem of the inability of libraries to keep up with the ever-increasing volume and cost of scholarly resources.

The UC Davis General Library joins many U.S. academic libraries which partner with faculty to address the scholarly communication challenges facing universities. The issues of copyright, intellectual property, journal costs, and library budgets all affect the ability of academic institutions to provide access to research results and instructional materials.

UC Davis General Library

Faculty Action and Copyright
Faculty play an influential role in addressing the issues and identifying potential solutions since they create, edit, and review research data and benefit significantly from publication of journals and mongraphs.

The following white papers are the product of the Academic Council Special Committee on Scholarly Communication (SCSC) under the collective title Responding to the Challenges Facing Scholarly Communication.

Copyright & Intellectual Property Information
The Library's Copyright & Intellectual Property web site provides information and guides to UC Davis, University of California, United States, and international policies and law on the topics of copyright, patents, trademarks, and licensing. This web site also provides links to the related topics of scholarly electronic publishing initiatives and the scholarly communication challenges facing universities. The UC Davis General Library provides guidance on copyright for faculty posting articles to a website, and protecting copyright for published articles.
Librarian Subject Specialists
Librarian Subject Specialists are assigned to each discipline and provide a wide range of services, including collection assessment and development, specialized reference consultation, and introductions to library resources for classes with intensive library projects.

University of California

Reshaping Scholarly Communication
Through the California Digital Library's web site, the Office of Scholarly Communication, coordinates the UC libraries actions associated with scholarly publishing and presents options for campus librarians and faculty to consider. Campus librarians are available to discuss options for scholarly publishing, such as the evolving eScholarship program.
eScholarship
eScholarship provides a suite of open access, scholarly publishing services and research tools that enable departments, research units, publishing programs, and individual scholars associated with the University of California to have direct control over the creation and dissemination of the full range of their scholarship. eScholarship also provides deposit and dissemination services for postprints, or previously published articles.
A New World of Scholarly Communication
In the November 7, 2003 Chronicle of Higher Education, retired UC President Richard C. Atkinson discussed the future of university libraries and the mushrooming costs of academic publications which faculty and higher education leaders must address to ensure the future viability of scholarly communications.
Campus Library Scholarly Communication Programs
Describes the challenges and strategic plans related to managing campus library collections. Contains information on collection management strategies from libraries at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Santa Barbara.

Other Academic Research Libraries

ARL Scholarly Communication
Nationally, the Association of Research Libraries maintains a web site, Issues in Scholarly Communication, which highlights trends and actions taken by academic libraries to address the scholarly communications concerns.
Other Research Library Sites on Scholarly Communications

For more information regarding scholarly communication issues and strategies, consult your librarian subject specialist or Gail Yokote Associate University Librarian for the Sciences.