Full article: A Transformative Agreement Community of Practice: Collaboratively-Produced Insights into the Current Open Access Environment

Abstract:  The scholarly communication landscape has experienced significant evolution in the past several years with the advent of transformative agreements. The largest library systems and academic library consortia have made substantial progress in this time by using their scale and publishing output to effect meaningful changes in their access and publishing models. Smaller institutions, however, have encountered a different set of challenges that present thorny questions that involve mission, organizational dynamics, and their relation to other stakeholders. This article presents a case study of the creation of a Community of Practice from small- and medium-sized academic libraries and their representative consortia using Human Centered-Design methods. Select output of the community’s collective efforts is presented as well as the methods themselves to help similar institutions gain an appreciation for what high-level scale responses may look like, the potential of the methods, and the complexity of the issues that the community was able to adumbrate. The article underscores the importance of communication, collaboration, and leadership in formulating local responses that will help reshape the scholarly publishing landscape nationally as well as transform local practices in service to greater engagement.