April 12, 2005

  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/

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