Many new initiatives have recently occurred in scholarly publishing. These developments include the introduction of new interdisciplinary journals, an increased emphasis on the archiving and preservation of journal content (LOCKSS, CLOCKS) in the library community, the development of new journal subscription models (open access) for established scholarly journals, and the experimentation with new models for peer review (open peer review). This talk will summarize these new developments in publishing and scholarship andprovide background for later talks in the symposium.