June 25, 2025

This is a time of upheaval for many libraries: budgets are shrinking amid a financial crisis in HE while large commercial vendors are unilaterally changing the terms on which content can be purchased, putting libraries in the position of continually paying for resources they will never own. In an unstable time, what are the opportunities for libraries to respond? Does open access offer an alternative to closed content, and can we sustain and develop equitable models to achieve it?

This webinar is a much-needed opportunity to explore open access for books by asking whether—and how—it might be possible to start transitioning library spend from ‘acquiring’ content (a closed-access system) to ‘enabling’ access for all by supporting Diamond open access (OA) models for books. These are models whereby a publisher makes books OA without charging the reader and without charging the author, instead supporting their operations with other funding streams e.g. small payments from a large number of libraries to open the books for everyone.

In conversation with the developers of Diamond OA programmes for books such as Opening the Future and the Open Book Collective, librarians from a range of institutions will explore issues including:

  • What do Diamond models for books (as opposed to journals) actually look like, and do they work?
  • Can OA interlink with other priorities for the library, e.g. providing access to textbooks?
  • What are the connections between problems caused by closed-access content and potential OA solutions? Can we articulate them meaningfully?
  • Given all the other pressures on library budgets, what arguments might be used to justify spend on OA that will persuade senior management?
  • What are the practical steps we can take now?

We will explore these questions from the perspectives of different institutions, acknowledging that there is no single solution that will fit all libraries. Attendees will come away with a better understanding of how Diamond OA for books can work, how OA can be more than either a ‘nice-to-have’ or an additional financial burden, and how they might begin making changes at their institution to move from expensive and opaque fees for closed-access content, to greater levels of sustainable support for equitable Diamond OA.

Speakers:

Andrew Knight, Imperial
Matt Cox, Anglia Ruskin University
Sharon Stevens, University of Worcester
with
Kevin Sanders (OBC/Copim)

Lucy’s Introduction

Lucy’s introduction is missing from the recording; her text is available here:
“Discussions about funding OA books often seem to treat it as a way to fund author publication, rather than seeing it as a way to fund/acquire/’enable’ content, with a lot of justified concern about the level of book processing charges. 

There also exist models whereby OA books are funded by other means, with no charge to the author. These are sometimes called ‘Diamond’ open access models, and they vary in nature: they include mixed models involving Library Membership programmes plus other income streams e.g. sales (OBP/OBC), or else subscription to closed-access backlist to fund OA frontlist (OtF, MIT’s Direct2Open), or ‘delayed OA’ models like CUP’s ‘Flip it Open’.

These models don’t involve enormous fees for a single book–the cost is usually relatively small–but as a result they are often seen as a ‘nice to have’/add-on/extra, often funded by ‘money behind the back of the sofa’ – not part of core library strategy, and not often linked to acquisitions at all. This hinders their growth and expansion.

OA models for books are also often seen, for different reasons and by different groups, as a risky move away from the closed-access status quo that we know well. But that status quo is looking less and less stable. The decision in February this year by Clarivate/Pro Quest to phase out perpetual access purchases for print, eBooks and digital collections by the end of 2025 offers a vision of the future that I would characterise as ‘own nothing, pay forever’; meanwhile budgets are being slashed amid a grim national picture for Higher Education as whole departments are being closed and staff being made redundant. There’s no doubt we are in unstable times. 

A few months ago I began talking with Matt Cox, Head of Content Delivery and Discovery at Anglia Ruskin University and a member of our panel today, about what role OA for books–and particularly Diamond OA–might play in helping to form a way to begin tackling some of these intractable problems, and if, and how, it could be made more central to library strategies. Those conversations have ultimately led to this panel today.”