With the creation of the Office of Scholarly Communication (OSC) in 1990, the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) launched an initiative to focus widespread attention on the dysfunctions in the scholarly publishing system. Through the collection and dissemination of data documenting the serials crisis, a bias for action that led to the creation of SPARC, the employment of an international network of organizations with similar interest in the issue, and a robust education program, ARL-under the leadership of Duane Webster-catalyzed a global movement that is actively working today to create new models of scholarly publishing. (Contains 1 figure and 28 notes.)