The University's Role in the Dissemination of Research and Scholarship--A Call to Action.

Background On August 4, 2008, 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), convened a roundtable discussion engaging provosts, chief research officers, chief information officers, senior faculty, and library and university press directors to identify actions that should be taken to expand the dissemination of the products of the university community’s research and scholarship. Informed by that discussion, a new statement, “The University’s Role in the Dissemination of Research and Scholarship” provides guidance to each organization and its members. Many campus leaders should receive copies of the statement through their affiliations with AAU, NASULGC, CNI, or EDUCAUSE (or see http://www.arl.org/disseminating_research_2009.pdf) giving library directors an opportunity to promote it as a consensus document and reinforce its messages.