a UK-registered charity and defined by its emphasis on transparency, community governance, and non-profit operation, the OBC functions as a financial intermedi- ary, enabling libraries to support a range of initiatives – independent publishers, university presses, and open infrastruc- ture providers – in one place, through its annual supporter programmes. In this it shares a vision with the Open Journals Collective, which applies the same principles of collective, non-profit funding to open access journals. The two organisations operate independently and focus on different formats, but both are committed to a broader reimagining of how libraries can support open schol- arship – by moving scholarly publish- ing away from author-facing charges and commercial capture, and towards community-governed, infrastructure-led models that work to sustain the systems that make equitable knowledge produc- tion possible in the first place.
Evidence base In the OBC’s conversations with libraries, the questions we are most often asked are practical rather than ideological. Support for open access is usually taken as a given; the challenge is usually how to make a forceful internal case for collective funding models, particularly to colleagues outside the library. Evidence is important, but not all evidence carries equal weight. Usage statistics are frequently requested and can be helpful, but they are rarely sufficient on their own. Because of their open nature, OA books are used across platforms, geographies, timeframes, in ways that are difficult to capture through standard metrics alone. Libraries have told us that qualitative evidence is equally important: author affiliation data, subject relevance, evidence of teaching use, and case studies that demonstrate impact beyond the Global North. This broader framing is especially important when engaging finance teams and senior management, who may otherwise frame open access investment as ‘paying for free content’, particularly
where benefits are collective rather than institution-specific. Articulating the value often requires aligning OA book support with institutional priorities such as research visibility, funder compliance, reputational benefit, and longer-term cost avoidance in a market defined by price inflation and consolidation. Researchers themselves also play a significant, if sometimes indirect, part in these funding decisions. Academic attitudes heavily influence institutional pri- orities, even where budgets are controlled by libraries or research offices. Experience suggests concrete benefits tend to hold the most sway: the removal of book pro- cessing charges, compliance with funder policies, and the increased global reach of long-form scholarship. Libraries that have been most successful in building internal support often work in partnership with research development teams, doctoral schools, or departmental research committees, drawing evidence from local examples. Showcasing where colleagues have published OA books with- out fees, or where OA chapters are being used in teaching, included on reading lists, or cited internationally, helps move the discussion away from abstract princi- ples towards lived academic experience.
Bibliodiversity
For institutional decision-makers, bibliodi- versity can sometimes seem like an abstract concept or of lesser importance when com- pared to more pressing financial concerns. However, it maps closely onto strategic priorities that many universities already include in policy and practice, including internationalisation, research integrity, inclusion, and global engagement.
Supporting a diverse publishing eco- system is also a matter of institutional resilience. Over-reliance on a small number of dominant, largely Anglophone publishers narrows the range of voices and perspectives within scholarship, reproduc- ing language and regional hierarchies, and also leaves institutions vulnerable to price inflation, restrictive licensing, and market consolidation. Collective funding models like the OBC offer one potential approach to addressing these risks. By supporting non-Anglo- phone publishers, regionally embedded presses, and open infrastructures that do not assume a single dominant scholarly culture, they help sustain disciplinary breadth and enable the publication of scholarship from and for communities that are often marginalised within global knowledge economies. Presented this way, bibliodiversity is not a ‘nice to have’, but a key part of long- term protection of the integrity and sus- tainability of scholarly communication.
Practical advice
For libraries exploring collective funding models for OA books, a few practical reflections may be helpful:
l Look on OA book support as investment in infrastructure, rather than purchasing content or access;
l ring-fence small budgets to allow experimentation without displacing core collections;
l ask questions about governance, sus- tainability, and exit routes;
l combine metrics with narrative evi- dence when making internal cases;
l look for models that align with insti- tutional values around equity and global knowledge production and exchange.
Collective funding is not a panacea; it will not solve every problem in OA book publishing. But with more libraries reassessing the value of the traditional big deals and confronting the limits of BPC-driven approaches, these models offer a possible future structured around collective, rather than competitive, action, and a means of shaping the direction of scholarly communication, rather than simply reacting to it. BG
l
caroline@openbookcollective.org l @
heroicendeavour.bsky.social
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