From: Heather Morrison <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:12:00 -0800

Fellow librarians

For years librarians have worked to encourage faculty to change their
publishing practices to support affordable alternatives. Today, over
2,000 faculty have heeded the call and joined in the Elsevier boycott
initiated by mathematician Timothy Gowers.

We librarians are very aware of the very high cost of Elsevier
journals, the harm that bundling does to scholarly communication
overall by taking flexibility away from libraries so that scholarly
monographs and journals of publishers outside the big deals are always
the ones being cancelled. In addition, Elsevier has recently very
actively lobbied for laws that are not in the interests of scholars or
libraries - SOPA, PIPA, and the Research Works Act which would make it
impossible for the U.S. to mandate public access to the results of
research that it funds.

It is timely for us to practice what we preach, which includes
addressing our own journals, including the Journal of Academic
Librarianship and Serials Review, which are owned by Elsevier. Please
join the growing Elsevier boycott - details and a link to sign up can
be found at:
http://thecostofknowledge.com/

Gavia Libraria, the Library Loon, has some tips on alternatives for
those with interest and energy for editing, writing or reviewing:
http://gavialib.com/2012/01/elsevier-editorial-boards-serials-review/

All the best,

Heather Morrison, MLIS
Doctoral Candidate, Simon Fraser University School of Communication
http://pages.cmns.sfu.ca/heather-morrison/
The Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics
http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.com