Liverpool University Press announces first sign up to their Opening the Future OA books programme
Posted by Tom Grady on Sept. 20, 2021 at 1056
Liverpool University Press (LUP) is delighted to announce that KU Leuven has become the first institution to join its Opening the Future programme. Recently launched as the second of COPIM’s pilots for sustainable open access books, the initiative will see KU Leuven staff and students benefit from unlimited access to two backlist series of LUP monographs on contemporary Latin American culture, language, politics, and writing. In return LUP will use the subscription fees to produce new open access (OA) monographs, freely accessible to all. The programme is designed to make library funds go further: achieving the dual objectives of increasing ebook collections and supporting OA.
Demmy Verbeke, Head of KU Leuven Libraries Artes and Associate Professor of Open Scholarship in the Humanities, said “KU Leuven actively promotes the sustainable implementation of Open Access and Open Science, and especially sponsors non-profit and community-led initiatives. Liverpool University Press’ Opening the Future programme is a great example of all of these aims and we are pleased to be among their first subscribers.”
Support like this is essential for collective funding of OA monographs to be successful and to sustainably move university presses towards compliance with the new vision outlined in UKRI’s recent policy announcement. CEO at LUP, Anthony Cond, said “KU Leuven is a forward-thinking institution which is leading the way in making scholarship accessible to all. We are thrilled to have them on board and kickstarting Opening the Future.
Liverpool University Press looks forward to seeing the programme grow and welcomes enquiries and feedback from the scholarly community. If you would like to know more about becoming a library subscriber to LUP’s Opening the Future, you can read more and sign up on the website, or contact Anthony Cond, on a.cond@liverpool.ac.uk
Image credit: View over Leuven, late 19th century, public domain. Detroit Publishing Co., catalogue J, foreign section. Detroit, Mich. : Detroit Publishing Company, c1905. - https://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/ppmsc.05692/