SPARC: encouraging new
models of disseminating
knowledge
Ken Frazier
Introduction
SPARC is a worldwide alliance of libraries and
library organizations. It is part of a growing
international movement that aspires to
transform the world of scholarly
communication. SPARC's ultimate goal is to
create a better, faster and less expensive system
of research communication. We propose to
lower the cost of information access by
encouraging competition in the scholarly
communications market and by introducing
new technological solutions to scientific journal
publishing.
We believe that these goals are possible
because knowledge is not merely a commodity.
Knowledge rightly belongs to human society
generally and, more specifically, to the people
who create it. If the men and women who create
new scholarship and research decide to change
scholarly communication, then no power on
earth can stop this change from taking place.
The membership of SPARC now includes
181 research libraries, college libraries and
research institutions. Most of the member
institutions are in North America, but SPARC
also includes members in the UK, Europe and
Asia. In addition, library organizations in North
America, the UK and Ireland, Europe and
Australia are affiliated with SPARC and work
with us to increase support for our common
goals overseas.
``SPARC'' is an acronym that stands for the
Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources
Coalition. The arrangement of letters is, of
course, intended to result in the same
pronunciation as the English word ``spark'' ± a
small flash of fire that may be insignificant, but
in the right circumstances, may set off a much
more profound and dramatic chain of events.
The name is quite appropriate. If SPARC
succeeds in convincing others to combine their
efforts with ours, then great changes are indeed
possible. One fact is certain, SPARC cannot
hope to change scholarly communication
without the participation of the wider research
community.
I want to emphasize at the outset that we
librarians ± the founders of the SPARC
movement ± have great respect for publishers
and the value that they add to knowledge. Most
publishers, including for-profit publishers,
The author
Ken Frazier is Director, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Libraries, Madison, WI, USA. frazier@macc.wisc.edu
Keywords
Journal publishing, Electronic publishing
Abstract
Presents an outline of the organization, SPARC ± Scholarly
Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition ± which
represents a worldwide alliance of libraries and library
organizations. Describes how SPARC is developing publish-
ing options to traditional research and scholarly
communication while maintaining quality but at more
reasonable prices.
Electronic access
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is
available at
http://www.emerald-library.com
117
Collection Building
Volume 19
.
Number 3
.
2000
.
pp. 117±123
# MCB University Press
.
ISSN 0160-4953