Rethinking the library's role in publishing

Print has been the most significant scholarly communication technology for over three hundred years. In the last decades of the twentieth century, tec hnological developments have revolutionized our attitudes towards communica tion as well as our ability to communicate ideas and research results elect ronically, to a global audience. As a result university libraries have begu n to redefine their traditional role as guardians and gatekeepers of our re positories of knowledge, and have entered an arena that was previously the domain ol. commercial and university presses. This paper surveys Jive library projects (Highwire Press, Internet Library of Early Journals, Project EDUCATE, Project Muse and the Scholarly Communic ations Project) which demonstrate different organizational models, funding sources and types of content.