Report on Open Access books and libraries in Europe is released

It is now available, having been officially presented during the OPERAS-P workshop, a report made in partnership between OPERAS-P and COPIM on the landscape of academic libraries and Open Access (OA) books in Europe. The study was based on the situation of 14 countries with regard to their academic library systems and Open Access policies for books. The report is published both as an ebook and a living book.

The study investigated the situations of the core member countries of OPERAS (Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia and the Netherlands), with the addition of Spain and the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden). The study was developed through a systematic literature review, desk research and the information collected with representatives of library communities from all countries, obtained from interviews and workshops. Representatives of the participating countries answered to questions related to their specific library systems, their open access policies and book publishing initiatives.

The report examines academic and research library systems, the provision of e-content and the acquisition of open access books; assesses the integration of e-content in library catalogues and virtual learning environments in the selected countries. It also examines how library communities work and deals with the local policies for open access books. The study also identifies existing funding schemes, crowdfunding groups and consortia, examining emerging initiatives in publishing open access books, particularly those that involve libraries in their publishing processes. The research considered academic libraries and research libraries, linked to higher education institutions, with public libraries not included in the scope.

The study consider as Open Access books the academic monographs and edited volumes, published in open access, excluding textbooks. Based on this, the results of the report show that there is a potential for the creation of an EU-wide consortia funding model for OA books, where countries could be united in groups based on their similarities, creating a variety of funding models that could work for centralized and decentralized systems, for veterans and novices. As highlighted by Agata Morka and Rupert Gatti, who sign the investigation, there is an undeniable interest in OA books from the academic library community, but there are several challenges to be faced and discrepancies in the countries' situations. For example, in the Nordic countries, Germany and the Netherlands, Open Access has become one of the central aspects of scholarly communication; institutions offer support and there are funding systems that allow libraries to invest in OA book publishing initiatives. Other regions, on the other hand, struggle at different levels with the complete integration of OA publications in their ecosystems and have, among others, issues such as insufficient funding, limited human resources, little autonomy in institutional decision-making and little space for experimentation.

The analysis of each country was based on six different areas of interest, including: the general characteristics of their library systems for e-content and OA publications, the library community and Open Access, policies, funding and library initiatives for Open Access books, and the integration of OA books into the systems. In addition to a general table with the main results of each country, allowing a quick comparative view, most of the report is dedicated to the specific and detailed results of the situation in each country. The abundance of initiatives across Europe shows the scale and importance of libraries in Open Access practices and the outputs show that specific policies for books are slowly being introduced. Only three from the fourteen countries have already introduced national open access policies that include books (France, Poland and the Netherlands). Specific funding for books is also a rarity, existing in only four of the countries (Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and Norway); these four are also pioneers in the open access movement in Europe. In other countries - Portugal included - publications of OA books are most commonly funded by research grants, with part of the resources allocated for covering OA publication costs.

With regard to Portugal, the findings show that there is a general centralized system, with a certain degree of autonomy for libraries at institutional level. The B-on consortium is the highlight of the system, providing access to e-content for Higher Education Institutions. The RCAAP network appears as the operator of the library community oriented towards Open Access, and the BAD association is also cited as a representative. In terms of policies, the report points out that, although there are no national open access policies, there is a set of recommendations developed at national level (not yet officially published). In addition, there are 27 institutions with their own open access policies registered in the ROAR database (Register of Open Access Repositories), of which 13 specifically mention OA books.

The report also points out, regarding Portugal, that in the country there is no specific funding for open access books: this type of publication is fundamentally funded through research grants. Also, libraries in the country are not the leaders in open access publishing initiatives (although they contribute to making monographs and books available in their repositories). The Coimbra University Press is mentioned as the oldest publisher, together with its open access publishing policy, adding up to almost 600 books indexed in the DOAB (Directory of Open Access Books). The University of Minho and its University Press, created in 2019, are also mentioned as oriented to open access, with the publication of books and journals in this model.

Finally, the integration of OA books in library systems in Portugal is done from discovery platforms and with the local cataloging of books. The books rely on aggregators for OA coverage, so that the national aggregator RCAAP lists more than 15,000 OA books from 10 different Portuguese repositories.

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The report, with detailed results for each country, can be read in full in PDF or living book versions. Due to the constant evolution and development of the scenario, the living book allows its constant update and commentaries.