The Old Dominion University Libraries and the Friends of the Library are sponsoring a program titled, "Exploring the Crisis in Scholarly Publishing and Its Possible Remedies," Thursday, March 29.

Julia C. Blixrud, director of information services at the Association of Research Libraries, will be the presenter for two hourlong sessions of the program: at 12:30 p.m. and 4 p.m. in the Perry Library conference room.

She will give a broad overview of existing strains in scholarly publishing and discuss projects throughout the country designed to effect changes in the current system.

Librarians and scholars are coming together on college campuses across the country to exchange information and form partnerships, where possible, on this issue, said Jean Major, Old Dominion's university librarian.

"All members of the university community are increasingly aware of a crisis in scholarly publication: the dominance of commercial (profit-making) practices in scholarly journal publishing, libraries' struggle to maintain journal collections as prices escalate and disciplines expand, the reallocation of acquisitions funds to journals and away from the purchase of scholarly monographs, and a resulting shrinking market for monographs," Major said.

Following Blixrud's presentation, Old Dominion scholars will have an opportunity to discuss the issues in more detail, evaluate the various projects in existence and consider remedies that are feasible for them.