Four lead­ing asso­ci­a­tions serv­ing research uni­ver­si­ties — the Asso­ci­a­tion of Research Libraries (ARL), the Asso­ci­a­tion of Amer­i­can Uni­ver­si­ties (AAU), the Coali­tion for Net­worked Infor­ma­tion (CNI), and the National Asso­ci­a­tion of State Uni­ver­si­ties and Land-Grant Col­leges (NASULGC) — have issued a joint state­ment, ‘The University’s Role in the Dis­sem­i­na­tion of Research and Schol­ar­ship.’ The state­ment is a call to action for uni­ver­si­ties to ensure the broad­est pos­si­ble access to the prod­ucts of their work.

The state­ment is an out­growth of a round­table dis­cus­sion hosted by the four organ­i­sa­tions that engaged provosts, chief research offi­cers, chief infor­ma­tion offi­cers, senior fac­ulty, and library and uni­ver­sity press direc­tors. These lead­ers iden­ti­fied a set of actions that should be taken to expand the dis­sem­i­na­tion of the full range of prod­ucts of the uni­ver­sity community’s research and schol­ar­ship. The call to action offers a broader vision for the university’s role and pro­vides a series of rec­om­mended actions, both for cam­pus lead­ers and for col­lec­tive action by the uni­ver­sity community.

The com­plete doc­u­ment, ‘The University’s Role in the Dis­sem­i­na­tion of Research and Scholarship—A Call to Action,’ is avail­able online at http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/disseminating-research-feb09.pdf.”