SPARC Executive Directorship Changes Leadership
Rick Johnson, the founding executive director of SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition), has announced his resignation. Johnson, the only executive director in SPARC’s history, will be replaced effective July 1 by Heather Joseph, currently president and COO of BioOne. Johnson said he planned to take some time "to catch my breath," consult, travel and spend more time with his family. Under Johnson’s leadership, SPARC swelled into an international organization, including SPARC Europe in the UK; in April, Johnson traveled to Japan to strengthen ties there. While SPARC was founded in 1998, developed by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), in 2002 it committed itself as a chief proponent of open access, a decision that both inspired activism among librarians and packed forums at library meetings, most recently as a booster of the NIH’s public access plan. ARL executive director Duane Webster praised Johnson’s efforts for "making libraries an important force in the process of transforming scholarly communication."
[Library Journal Academic Newswire (TM), April 26, 2005]
