Wesleyan University Library signs up to OLH LPS model

We're extremely pleased to announce that Wesleyan University Library has joined the Open Library of Humanities' Library Partnership Subsidy system. Wesleyan University was founded in 1831 by Methodist leaders and Middletown citizens. Today, Wesleyan offers instruction in 40 departments and 44 major fields of study and awards the bachelor of arts and graduate degrees. The master of arts degree and the doctor of philosophy are regularly awarded in six fields of study. Students may choose from more than 900 courses each year and may be counted upon to devise, with the faculty, some 900 individual tutorials and lessons.

The Open Library of Humanities is an academic-led, gold open-access publisher with no author-facing charges. With initial funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the platform covers its costs by payments from an international library consortium, rather than any kind of author fee.

Dr. Martin Paul Eve, a founder and academic project director of the OLH, welcomed Wesleyan: “It is excellent that Wesleyan University Library has joined the LPS model. The LPS is designed to allow institutions of all shapes and sizes to work together to achieve gold open access in the humanities disciplines, traditionally a harder space. With the participation of institutions like Wesleyan, we will make this a reality.”

Diane Klare, Interim University Librarian, added “Wesleyan University Libraries is delighted to participate and support the Open Library of the Humanities open-access initiative. We hope that broadening the reach of scholarship in the humanities through such innovative efforts will promote the advancement of academic research in a global and financially equitable manner to scholars worldwide.”

Libraries outside the US and UK interested in joining the OLH Library Partnership Subsidy model should contact Dr. Martin Paul Eve: martin.eve@openlibhums.org. UK-based libraries will shortly be able to join through Jisc Collections. US-based libraries can join through LYRASIS at https://lyrasis.openlibhums.org.