Open Book Collective

We're supporting both LSE Press and Arc through our membership of the @openbookcollective.bsky.social

OBC brings together publishers, service providers and institutions, working collectively on the production and dissemination of OA books in traditional and innovatively experimental forms (6/7)

Really exciting news from our partnership with @openbookcollective.bsky.social.

We're now supporting @lsepress.bsky.social + @archumanities.bsky.social to help open up scholarly publishing and the open research ecosystem. This stuff really matters - more detail in the thread below. 🔓

Today is #GivingTuesday, a global celebration of giving in all forms - donating, volunteering, sharing, campaigning, fundraising - and what is Open Access if not a form of giving?

So this Giving Tuesday, let’s celebrate the free & open sharing of knowledge, research, data, information, expertise!

Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: OBC New Members Showcase. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting. The Open Book Collective (OBC) invites colleagues from across the library and open access community to join our upcoming New Member Showcase - an open session for libraries, consortia, and others inte...

There's still time to register for our New Member Showcase this afternoon, where we'll be introducing our newest members to the community - @archumanities.bsky.social, @barbarabudrich.bsky.social, @pkp.sfu.ca, @sidestone.bsky.social, and Edizioni Ca' Foscari (Venice University Press)!

Now a more in-depth look at the @openbookcollective.bsky.social and the amazing things they are making possible, including the OBC's Collective Development Fund, which is providing support to build capacity for #DiamondOA publishing activities of #OAbooks

Small, scholar/community-led publishers *can* thrive, but they need to be supported by shared infrastructures, sustainable funding models, and spaces built around their needs rather than market consolidation. The good news is a lot of this is already in motion - but there is clearly much work to do!

What stands out most of all, and the biggest resonance for us, reaffirming what we see every day, is the need for collective solutions; the report urges smaller publishers to find a “collective voice” in a tech environment dominated by big vendors.

As with almost every element of the scholarly communications ecosystem, AI looms large. AI-generated content, plagiarism detection, and authorship verification were cited as big concerns, among others.

These publishers are also heavily reliant on external service providers, with 87% outsourcing at least one core workflow. This also echoes what we hear from many OA book presses: maintaining basic operations can be difficult without shared, low-cost, community-owned infrastructure.

Discoverability is also key. Improving metadata, integrating with indexes, and making content more findable were all highlighted as priorities. Publishers see discoverability as essential, but most of them don't have the capacity to tackle it alone - something we also see in the OA books space.

Smaller publishers are clearly feeling the strain. Budget constraints, tiny teams, and difficulty integrating with platforms and tools were the most frequently reported challenges. These issues will be all-too-familiar to scholar-led and community-based book presses!

2025 Report: Technology Needs of Small and Medium Journal Publishers Insights into smaller-sized publishers' technical priorities, from research integrity to AI adoption.

We’ve been reading the new 'Technology Needs of Small and Medium Journal Publishers report' - and despite its focus on journals, there’s a fair amount here that is equally applicable to small and medium OA *book* publishers too.

Thread 👇

Our Director @joedeville.bsky.social will be streaming live from #Munin2025 in around 30 mins (9.30GMT/10.30CET), introducing the OBC's work & some examples from our report into barriers to supporting collective #DiamondOpenAccess publishing. Streaming link: uit.cloud.panopto.eu/Panopto/Page...

Join @thoth-metadata.bsky.social @pkp.sfu.ca at #Munin2025 TODAY!

🖊️ Moving beyond closed silos: liberating workflows based on open metadata to bring about an interoperable and open not-for-profit ecosystem for open access books and chapters
⏰ 12:00-12:10
🔗 buff.ly/3BX2Ahl

#OpenMetadata #OA

Announcing OBC's Third Collective Development Fund award for 2025-26: Capacity building strategy for access and publication of Open Access academic books for small and medium-sized Higher Education In... Strengthening capacity for access to and publication of high quality academic OA books produced by researchers from seven Colombian universities

The Open Book Collective is pleased to introduce the third awardee of our Collective Development Fund for 2025-26:
openbookcollective.pubpub.org/pub/announci...

If you're attending #Munin2025, look out for our director @joedeville.bsky.social - always happy to talk all things open access and books!

🔦 To celebrate #UPWeek we're shining a light on the institutional publishers you can support via @openbookcollective.bsky.social

An international group of UPs, including publishers that are either 100% OA already or moving towards at least 75% #OA on new books

👉 buff.ly/vFVahp7

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Collective funding for Diamond #OpenAccess books in action! Libraries who support the OBC @openbookcollective.bsky.social made the Collective Development Fund possible, which awards micro-grants to smaller OA operations to start up or improve their technical & other capacities.

VIVE la Diamond OA!

Update on OBC's Second Collective Development Fund Award: Enhancing Open Access Book Publishing at Chinhoyi University of Technology Library

The Open Book Collective is delighted to share a new update from our Collective Development Fund awardees at Chinhoyi University of Technology Library: openbookcollective.pubpub.org/pub/second-u...

UALRO Blog - Scholarly Communications - LibGuides at UAL Library Services UKRI Open Access Grant 2024/2025

Did you know that @ukri.org block grant can also be used to support other #OA costs eg #OA infrastructure, memberships & other more equitable #publishing models

@openbookcollective.bsky.social is just one of the #infrastructures supported by @ualro.bsky.social

Thanks guys 👍

🔗

Meet virtually with Cisco Webex. Anytime, anywhere, on any device. Simple, modern video meetings for everyone on the world's most popular and trusted collaboration platform.

Delighted to announce the seventh lecture in the Open Divide – Critical Studies on Open Access series! 🎙️ Samuel Moore on 📷 Publishing Beyond the Market: Open Access, Care, and the Commons 📷
November 26, 2025, at 5:00 PM (CET)
unilu.webex.com/weblink/regi...

Great thread on this afternoon's webinar, with talks from our colleagues at @scossfunding.bsky.social @thoth-metadata.bsky.social and @oapenbooks.bsky.social 👇

Congratulations @pkp.sfu.ca on this newly published Strategic Plan, with values of openness, community and inclusivity at its core. Come and hear from them at our showcase for new OBC members on Monday November 24th, at 3pm GMT/4pm CET/10am ET. Register here: us06web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Announcing OBC's Second Collective Development Fund award for 2025-26: Knowledge Accessible to the Community: CLACSO as a Platform to Democratize Scholarly Publishing in Latin America and the Caribbea... Providing structured training opportunities in the fundamentals of Diamond OA, and creating working spaces that allow knowledge dissemination through an easily accessible and sustainable virtual platf...

Through this award, the OBC continues to champion bibliodiversity and capacity-building within the global OA ecosystem.

Learn more about the Collective Development Fund and its recipients here:

The project builds on @clacso.bsky.social's leadership in community-led #OpenAccess to tackle regional asymmetries in OA knowledge and practice across Latin America. It offers structured training in the fundamentals of Diamond OA and creates collaborative spaces for equitable knowledge sharing.

We are delighted to announce the 2nd recipient of our Collective Development Fund for 2025–26 - 'Knowledge Accessible to the Community: CLACSO as a Platform to Democratize Scholarly Publishing in Latin America and the Caribbean', led by @clacso.bsky.social.

Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: OBC New Members Showcase. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting. The Open Book Collective (OBC) invites colleagues from across the library and open access community to join our upcoming New Member Showcase - an open session for libraries, consortia, and others inte...

Sign up for our upcoming New Member Showcase (3pm GMT, 24 Nov) to hear our latest updates and meet some of our newest members, who will introduce their work, their supporter offers, and opportunities for collaboration and library support.

Open to all, not just OBC members! Registration required.

HUZZAH! Community-led #OpenAccess book platforms that attend, not to scale, but to systems designed for resiliency and bibliodiversity will not only succeed, but are already succeeding. We helped build the OBC & we're proud as hell of it.

Photo of the four speakers in front of hte slide with their names

Starting now: It’s Time to Rally: Stakeholder Engagement in the U.S. Diamond Open Access Landscape

“Diamond open access did not grow in spite of decentralization -- it grew because of it.” @lalair.bsky.social

#chsconf2025 #charleston2025

09. Open Book Accessib... | Compass

And here is a template and resources to help small publishers ... compass.copim.ac.uk/books/09-ope...