The OBF National Libraries Network: a summary of our first year | Community-led Open Publication Infrastructures for Monographs (Copim)

Barnes, M. (2024). The OBF National Libraries Network: a summary of our first year. Copim. https://doi.org/10.21428/785a6451.dd03d609

Beginning in September 2023, near the start of the Open Book Futures Project, we have held quarterly meetings with National Libraries who were interested in being part of the OBF’s National Libraries Network. The initial agenda was to introduce the National Libraries to the work of the COPIM Project and the new initiatives within Open Book Futures of which they could be part. We also enquired as to what potential bottlenecks there were within their institutions in archiving open access books, how open access books are ingested into the National Library systems, and what legal permissions or challenges exist when handling OA books within their Legal Deposit systems. We also began discussions around metadata and file ingestion policies and complications.

The first meeting saw the British Library, the National Library of Scotland, and the German National Library attend. The OBF National Libraries Network has now grown to include three additional libraries: the National Library of the Netherlands (KB), the Qatar National Library (QNL), and the Library and Archives Canada (LAC), leading to a total of six participating National Libraries as we close 2024. The Library of Congress (LOC, USA) has also participated in discussions about workflows for open access books. Our goal is to increase the number of participating libraries and include more diverse geographical regions/nations. At present, we have held four meetings and aim to continue quarterly so far as the participating national libraries have availability. We also are preparing to hold focus groups within the participating national libraries beginning in early 2025.

 Some of the points that arose within the meetings were potentially duplicate entries for the same books (physical copy, limited-access copy, and open access digital copy), varying content policies that differed between nations, metadata and workflow limitations, consistency in defining open access, and concerns around metadata and licencing.

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