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Kathy Fescemeyer, Access to International Plant Sciences Journals - An Endangered Species?, Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship, Summer 2004. Abstract: "Access to international resources is always challenging. This project measures the availability of international journals in the plant sciences in libraries in the United States. The availability of 189 journals was evaluated by searching WorldCat. The analysis showed that 55% of the titles were held in 20 or fewer libraries throughout the United States. A subset of 16 titles searched in 30 libraries showed that only 57% of the libraries maintained current subscriptions to the journals. Implications to the lack of accessibility to these materials by North American researchers are discussed with suggestions of how availability might be improved." (Open Access News)  My comment: The worldwide distribution of scholarship on each topic (not only on plant science) is appreciated by all scholars. I wonder that the interesting article of Ms. Fescemeyer has neglected discussing the best way for the solution of the problem: Making available present and back issues of the plant journals electronically worldwide according to the principles of Open Access. Open Access is not only an answer to the well known "journal crisis" (the discussed international plant journals are inexpensive) but also a remedy against the divide between the anglocentric science culture in the US and other countries. The language barrier is in the sciences not so important as in the humanities. Open Access can help against the hiatus between the national scholarly cultures. In my opinion the free world wide web (and not the overpriced commercial e-journals) is the best medium to bring the sciences _really_ together - beside of the sunday speeches on the international character of science. 