Introducing EmpowOA at OLH

Humanities publishing can be a harsh and unforgiving place for open access.

We understand. In 2018, the Open Library of Humanities will pool its knowledge and resources to empower its membership, its authors and the wider humanities open access community. Now is the time to form the bonds that will give strength and conviction to all those supporting the APC-free gold open access of the future.

The OLH wants humanities librarians and scholars strong and ready to fight.

Everyone has their role to play and the OLH is working hard to help you play yours with tailored support. The EmpowOA programme is here to provide scholars and librarians working in the humanities with tools, spaces and cogent arguments.

Our manifesto is three-fold:

Librarians are our energy. The OLH will strengthen libraries’ collective power.

Each existing library member of the OLH consortium can now refer their colleagues, earning both the referrer and the referee a 10 per cent discount. The more partners you refer, the more you save. Tell a collaborator or consortium partner today! Your hard-earned funds will go further, supporting humanities research.

Librarians who visit the OLH website will soon be able to access a toolkit created with their needs in mind, equipping them to fight for the humanities, including videos, infographics, advocacy FAQs and reference sheets to strengthen the argument for an OLH membership or renewal. We are here to listen and to respond.

The scholars who edit and write for our journals are building an international open access community. The OLH will strengthen this powerful advocacy network.

Those who need OA support will soon have access to a network of advocates, a collective of librarians and scholars ready to educate and inform. Academics will be better equipped to argue for OA with their librarians and to offer them a referral discount. Volunteer today!

Scholars who visit the OLH website will soon have access to resources tailored to their needs, with data and infographics to equip them for their OA travails. We want to hear your ideas.

Humanities scholars and librarians are our lifeblood. The OLH will support this growing community.

We have initiated #EmpowOA twitter chat on Fridays at 7am PST/10am EST/3pm GMT/4pm CET. The conversation will also come to Facebook. Follow, share and like! Each session, a prominent figure or panel in humanities OA will field answers to a series of stimulus questions and moderate a discussion. Suggest a topic and enrich the debate! The archive is available on Wakelet.

OLH is now the home of an EmpowOA 'Open Insights' series of blog posts, containing think pieces, interviews and interventions in humanities OA. We welcome expressions of interest from our scholars and member librarians. 

You are the humanities

Come in from the cold