As the Canadian government introduces copyright legislation this week that will ultimately limit access to information, Peter Suber's spectacular Open Access News notes that this weekend the Canadian Library Association provided an important step in the right direction by endorsing a resolution on open access. The full resolution reads as follows:

Whereas connecting users with the information they need is one of a library's most essential functions, and access to information is one of librarianship's most cherished values; and

Whereas scholars and funders of research desire to share their research results and enhance the impact of their research; and

Whereas the scholarly publishing industry has been experiencing a cycle of price increases above inflation rates, leading to library cancellations, leading to further price increases, and so forth, with no relief in sight, and has thus negatively impacted access to research; and

Whereas the Open Access alternative involves making peer-reviewed scholarly journal articles freely available over the web through open access journals and/or author self-archiving; and

Whereas the concept of Open Access can be applied to other types of materials besides scholarly journal articles, for example government publications and digital collections; and

Whereas Canadian librarians and faculty are leaders in the Open Access movement, as exemplified by the Public Knowledge Project at UBC, and the participation of CARL (Canadian Association of Research Libraries) in SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Research Coalition); and

Whereas the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) and the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) have declared support for Open Access;

Be it resolved that the CLA formally declare its commitment to Open Access by signing the Budapest Open Access Initiative, and the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities; and

Be it resolved that CLA implement Open Access as expeditiously as possible, and CLA Executive Council report back to the next Annual General Meeting with regards to progress.