John Fitzgerald (University College Cork)
The impact of the so-called ‘journals crisis’ of the past two decades has been felt mainly by academic libraries as bearers of the steep increases in subscription costs. Despite a range of remedial measures and the emergence of possible alternative publishing models, pressure on libraries is increasing to maintain inflating subscriptions with reducing budgets. This paper identifies the challenges faced by academic libraries as both consumers and producers in the scholarly communication process and looks at how libraries might play their role in not wasting this crisis.
John Fitzgerald has been University Librarian at University College Cork since 1995 and was additionally appointed Director of Information Services in 2009. He has served as Chairman of the Consortium of National and University Libraries of Ireland, Chairman of the IUA (Irish Universities’ Association) Librarians’ Group, Chairman of the Cork Archives Institute and regularly acts as a reviewer and evaluator of EU-funded R&D projects on behalf of the European Commission in the areas of Digital Libraries and Cultural Heritage.
