The "serial pricing crisis" that has hit the Scholarly Communication system generated a great deal of initiatives and projects designed to transform radically the ways in which knowledge circulates. The first reaction to this crisis was new forms of cooperation between libraries which led to the creation of consortia for the shared purchasing of electronic resources. The academic community, resorting to sustainable electronic Publishing and Open Access to scientific literature, then sought new channels of communication able to satisfy the demand for widespread and rapid circulation of ideas and research findings. Open models of scientific communication achieved by the two strategies of "Open Access Publishing" and "Open Access Self-Archiving" represent an innovative approach that is capable of guaranteeing the dissemination of research literature. Some Open Access Journals, a new generation of freely accessible electronic periodicals, are already acclaimed. However, the affordability of their business model and their financial and other repercussions has generated a lively debate that still rages within the international community involved in the evolution of new models of Scholarly Communication.