17 October 1997

To: ARL University Librarians and Directors
From: M. A. Keller (Stanford) and Ann Okerson (Yale)
Re: Gordon & Breach v. American Institute of Physics and
American Physical Society

        The addresses of the web sites containing the
entire texts of the decisions of Judge Leonard B. Sand of
the U.S. Second District Court and the entire testimony of
the witnesses at the trial before Judge Sand, along with
links to some related sites are:

        http://barschall.stanford.edu
and

        http://www.library.yale.edu/barschall

        The case of Gordon & Breach v. American Institute
of Physics and American Physical Society is of wide
interest to those who care about the creation and diffusion
of scientific journals. In its assertions, arguments, and
counterarguments can be found a microcosm of all the issues
that plague scientists, librarians, and information
producers at the end of this millennium. It is a rich trove
of primary information provided for members of the academic
and legal communities and the citizenry who are interested
in the values and diffusion of scientific and scholarly
communications against the backdrop of the 20th-century
marketplace.

        The materials on these sites are from publicly
available sources, including documents of the courts
involved in the referenced legal actions. The materials are
presented in the interests of informing the public
discourse on the actions and related matters.  We fully
expect to add more materials from the U.S. trial and
materials from the European trials as well.

        The sites are named to honor the memory of Henry
Barschall, the distinguished physicist who conducted the
research and reported the results of his research on the
costs and impact factors of the journal literature in physics.
The  decisions of Judge Sand in the U.S. Second District Court
and of two of the three European courts in which he, the
American Institute of Physics, and the American Physical
Society were sued by Gordon & Breach have supported his
studies.  Among others, the Association of Research
Libraries honored him with a special citation, representing
formally the admiration and respect he had earned from the
global communities of research librarians and scientists.

        We invite your use of these materials and we
request wide distribution of the announcement of the
availability of the documentation of these cases.

----------------------
Michael A. Keller
  University Librarian;
  Director of Academic Information Resources;
  Publisher, HighWire press
Stanford University
245 Green Library
Stanford, CA 94305-6004 U.S.A.
voice:  1-650-723-5553
fax:    1-650-725-4902
e-mail: makeller@sulmail.stanford.edu

Ann L. Okerson
  Associate University Librarian
  for Collection Development & Management
Yale University
P. O. Box 208240, 130 Wall Street
New Haven, CT 06520-8240
voice:  1-203-432-1764
fax:    1-203-432-8527
e-mail: Ann.Okerson@yale.edu
URL:    http://www.library.yale.edu/~okerson/alo.html