A few years ago, France paid Elsevier 172 million euros so that 476 universities and medical center can have legal access to 2000 journals for five years. Harvard University said it can't afford journal publishers' prices in a news article published in The Guardian written by Ian Sample. Robert Darnton, director of Harvard Library told the Guardian: "I hope that other universities will take similar action. We all face the same paradox. We faculty do the research, write the papers, referee papers by other researchers, serve on editorial boards, all of it for free, and then we buy back the results of our labour at outrageous prices.

You may read the entire article at http://archive.is/20131210211632/http://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/apr/24/harvard-university-journal-publishers-prices