Collective Funding for Open Access Books: How Libraries and Publishers Can Banish the BPC (November 10, 2022, 3 pm (GMT)) | National Acquisitions Group

Books are not journals – how we fund OA for books need not (and ought not) follow the same models as have become dominant in journal publishing. With the introduction of the UKRI mandate for OA books beginning in 2024, OA is slowly becoming more than an ‘add on’: we are on a trajectory where open access is going to become the way that books are published. It’s crucial therefore that they are funded sustainably and systematically. We also need to make sure that smaller publishers are included in the shift towards OA. Book Processing Charges (BPCs) worsen inequality by favouring the most wealthy institutions and authors, in the same way that Transformative Agreements favour larger publishers, so it’s important to consider how the ‘long tail’ of book publishing can shift to OA in a sustainable and equitable way. This requires a shift from publishers but also from libraries: how does library acquisition adapt to ‘acquiring’ or supporting OA content? In this session we’ll hear from a large research library and a smaller library where both are making fundamental changes to the ways they support OA monograph publishing. We’ll also hear from the Open Book Collective (OBC) at the COPIM Project whose online platform will offer publishers and service providers ‘a one stop shop’ where they can list OA membership packages which libraries can pay to join. Colleagues will hear how other libraries are making the OA shift and will learn about collective approaches that seek to spread the funding of OA monographs so that no single institution bears a disproportionate cost. There will be time for Q&A.