Technology as agent for transformation: five case-studies of university libraries as facilitators for electronic scholarly publishing

Libraries have always played a central role in providing access to information. They have often played a minor role in the production of information artefacts. The new electronic technologies have lowered the barriers to publishing and a number of libraries are seizing this opportunity to redefine their roles as information universities. This paper discusses the results of a research project which examined the role of academic libraries as facilitators for scholarly electronic publishing. The research involved initial discussions via email followed by intensive site visits to a number of representative libraries in the US, UK, and Europe. This paper will consider each of the selected publishing projects in turn, looking at their mission, how they began, their current organisational structure, the publishing products they produce, the lessons other libraries can learn from their experiences, and their future prospects. Contributors: Victorian Association for Library Automation, Conference and Exhibition [9th : 1998 : Melbourne, Australia] ; Coverage: Rights: