OA in Legal Publishing: Durham Statement on Open Access to Legal Scholarship

[richards1000@comcast.net]

Listmembers may be interested in the "Durham Statement on Open 
Access to Legal Scholarship,"

http://legalresearchplus.com/2009/02/20/durham-statement-on-open-access-to-legal-scholarship/

issued earlier this month, and signed by the directors of many of 
the largest U.S. law libraries.  Here is the paragraph 
identifying the "objective" of the statement:

Durham Statement on Open Access to Legal Scholarship 11 February 
2009

Objective: The undersigned believe that it will benefit legal 
education and improve the dissemination of legal scholarly 
information if law schools commit to making the legal scholarship 
they publish available in stable, open, digital formats in place 
of print. To accomplish this end, law schools should commit to 
making agreed-upon stable, open, digital formats, rather than 
print, the preferable formats for legal scholarship. If stable, 
open, digital formats are available, law schools should stop 
publishing law journals in print and law libraries should stop 
acquiring print law journals. We believe that, in addition to 
their other benefits, these changes are particularly timely in 
light of the financial challenges currently facing many law 
schools.

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Robert C. Richards, Jr., J.D.*, M.S.L.I.S., M.A.
Philadelphia, PA
richards1000@comcast.net
http://home.comcast.net/~richards1000/LegalInformationSystemsBibliography.htm
* Member New York bar, retired status.
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