Library Support for OA Books Workshop: the German perspective | Community-led Open Publication Infrastructures for Monographs (COPIM)

This summer, as part of the WP2, we started a series of European-based workshops, aiming at gaining a better understanding of the national-specific issues surrounding collective funding for OA books from a library perspective. The first online workshop took place on July 30th 2020.

The event was organised jointly by three European projects. COPIM, open-access.network and OPERAS-P came together to host a workshop that brought together library and university presses representatives in Germany. Despite the Urlaub period being in full swing, we managed to gather a handsome number of participants from different institutions and regions. From Karlsruhe to Berlin: we all sat down in our respective living rooms to discuss possible futures of OA books in the German context. The workshop was divided in two parts: the first one focused on the main challenges that libraries encounter when supporting OA books-related initiatives, while the second one evolved around a discussion among a proposed model for collaborative funding for OA books. A number of recurring themes emerged from our discussion.