National Banned Books Week, which takes place September 27 - October 1, is an annual celebration of our right to access books and information without government interference or fear of recrimination.
Since 1990, the American Library Association's (ALA) Office for Intellectual Freedom has recorded more than 7,000 book challenges, primarily in the form of written complaints requesting a book be removed from library shelves or school curriculum.
The concept of Freedom to Read brings to mind issues of literacy and censorship. In a wealthy country like the U.S., we seldom think of the cost of a book or magazine as a serious impediment to access. When individuals could not afford to buy material, there was always the library. In the academy, however, university libraries have become well aware of how the pricing of scientific and medical information is restricting access to all but those affiliated with the richest of universities. Even great private institutions have been unable to keep up access to information for their scholars and students.
Advances in science, medicine, and technology depend on both inspiration and the understanding of prior research. Recognizing the important role that scientific journal articles play in this understanding, publishers that began as partners with researchers in the distribution of their work saw an opportunity to increase their revenues. They understood that research libraries needed to provide campus scientists with as many research journals as possible. As a result, publishers developed exploitive pricing and licensing models that have effectively reduced access to the world's increasing output of research. With the average subscription price to journals in chemistry and physics now over $2,500 and the average health sciences journal almost $1,000, only the largest libraries at the most elite institutions can afford access to the broadest array of available research publications.
Given that much research in the life sciences is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the House Appropriations Committee asked the NIH to develop a policy that would ensure that the results of research paid for by taxpayers would not be held hostage by publishers. After consulting with stakeholders, the NIH recently issued a proposal that would require NIH-funded research to be made freely available in PubMed Central (a publicly available, full-text archive) within six months of publication in a peer-reviewed journal.
This proposal by the NIH affirms the value of research as a public good and recognizes that the health and welfare of our citizens should take precedence over the excessive revenues enjoyed by some publishers. The National Academy of Sciences has endorsed the NIH proposal.
Open access to life-sciences literature will allow physicians, health care workers, researchers, students, and citizens alike, who do not happen to be affiliated with the largest and wealthiest institutions, to read the latest developments in a field without the costs of travel or excessive access fees. It will ensure that the results from significant investments by the NIH in the research conducted on important medical conditions is leveraged for use by all.
Since its inception in 1982, Banned Books Week has reminded us that, while not every publication is intended for every reader, each of us has the right to access to decide for ourselves what to read, listen to or view. The same individual freedoms must also be applied when considering levels of accessibility to scholarly communications.
Many publishers are opposed to the NIH proposal and are aggressively fighting it by seeking Senate changes to the House Appropriations report language. You can help by contacting your state senator and urging them to support the existing language and proposal. For more information on this issue, please visit the Alliance for Taxpayer Access Site at http://www.taxpayeraccess.org.
This Banned Books Week, the UIC University Library encourages everyone to join thousands of libraries and bookstores across the country in celebrating the freedom to read by participating in the special events, exhibits, and read-outs that showcase books that have been banned or threatened.
Or take a look at today's advances in technology and medicine that are saving lives-and improving the quality of them-and reflect on what your world might be like if such groundbreaking research was out of reach.
Mary M. Case
University Librarian
University of Illinois at Chicago
