Dear Armel,
Thank you for the information about ACS Policy. You may want
to ask to
speak with the Executive Committee of the IUCr in Florence before
or
during the Congress. Such a request should be sent to Mike Dacombe.
Letters of support for the COD from crystallographers unable
to obtain a
copy of the Cambridge Database might be helpful. You may also
want to
ask the French National Committee to ask that the question of
COD
downloading IUCr CIF files be placed on the agenda for the IUCr
General
Assembly in Florence. You should prepare a summary the reasons
for the
request. You may want to send the summary to other National
Committees,
to ask for their opinions and offer to answer questions about
your
proposal.
Frank Allen, the director of the CCDC has met with the Executive
Committee in the past and stressed that the CCDC is a charitable
organization that provides the database at reduced or no cost
to
crystallographers in dozens of emerging countries. The IUCr
values its
productive relationship with the CCDC and appreciates its charitable
gifts to crystallographers and the service the CCDC provides
to the
entire scientific community.
You may be interested to know, as I was, that the distribution
of copies
of the Cambridge Structural Database in Latin America has grown
from 29
copies in 1990 to 47 copies in 2003. This is facilitated by
the
generosity of the CCDC and the provision of half the normal
fees from
crystallographers in Madrid, Spain for crystallographers in
Latin
America. I have urged Dr. Allen to make their charitable activities
more
widely known by publishing an article in the IUCr Newsletter
so that
financially limited crystallographers everywhere might attempt
to avail
themselves of the generous support of the CCDC.
I hope your efforts to in make the valuable data in IUCr Publications
available to all crystallographers, particularly those with
limited
financial means are successful.
By placing the matter on the agenda for the General Assembly,
you might
do a great service to the community. Your might succeed in gaining
open
access to the COD and draw attention to the fact that the CCDC
has
programs to help emerging countries obtain low cost copies of
the CSD.
Sincerely,
William L. Duax, Ph.D.
President, International Union of Crystallography
Hauptman Woodward Medical Research Inst
73 High Street
Buffalo, NY 14203
E-Mail: duax@hwi.buffalo.edu
Web: http://www.iucr.org/