Sponsored by...

Open Society Institute
(http://www.soros.org/initiatives/information/about)
further details below.

SPARC and SPARC Europe
(http://www.arl.org/sparc, http://www.sparceurope.org/)
further details below.

JISC (http://www.jisc.ac.uk/)
The JISC is a joint committee of the UK further and higher education funding bodies, and is responsible for supporting the innovative use of information and communication technology (ICT) to support learning, teaching, and research. It is best known for providing the JANET network, a range of advice and support services, and a portfolio of high-quality resources. Information about the JISC, its services and programmes can be found at http://www.jisc.ac.uk/.

Organised by...

LIBER: Ligue des Bibliothèques Européennes de Recherche (http://www.kb.dk/liber/)

LIBER is a non-governmental association of the research libraries of Europe, formed under the auspices of the Council of Europe and having the status of a consultative body with that Council. LIBER represents and promotes the interests of research libraries of Europe. The general aim of LIBER is to assist research libraries in Europe to become a functional network across national boundaries in order to ensure the preservation of the European cultural heritage, to improve access to collections in European research libraries and to provide more efficient information services in Europe.

Open Society Institute
(http://www.soros.org/initiatives/information/about)

The Open Society Institute (OSI) is a private operating and grantmaking foundation that serves as the hub of the Soros foundations network, a group of autonomous foundations and organizations in more than 50 countries. OSI and the network implement a range of initiatives that aim to promote open societies by shaping government policy and supporting education, media, public health, and human and women's rights, as well as social, legal, and economic reform.

SPARC and SPARC Europe
(http://www.arl.org/sparc, http://www.sparceurope.org/)

SPARC is a worldwide alliance of research institutions, libraries and organizations that encourages competition in the scholarly communications market. SPARC introduces new solutions to scientific journal publishing, facilitates the use of technology to expand access, and partners with publishers that bring top-quality, low-cost research to a greater audience. SPARC strives to return science to scientists.

SPARC's worldwide membership and network of affiliates and endorsers support SPARC's projects in North America, the U.K. and Ireland, Europe, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand.

For more information: sparc@arl.org

CERN Library (http://library.cern.ch/)

CERN is the European Organization for Nuclear Research, the world's largest particle physics centre. The Scientific Information Service (currently the ETT-SI group) has for its mandate the management of the Library and the Historical and Scientific Archives of CERN. The CERN Library not only acquires and manages information resources in all fields of relevance to the Organization, but it also makes these accessible in the most convenient way to the worldwide particle physics community. The CERN Library has acquired considerable expertise in the area of e-prints management.

and in particular, the OAI3 organising committee.