The National Library of the Netherlands joins OLH LPS model

Posted by Paula Clemente Vega on 13 November 2019

We are delighted to announce that the National Library of the Netherlands has joined the Open Library of Humanities' Library Partnership Subsidy system. The National Library of the Netherlands (Dutch: KB) is based in The Hague and was founded in 1798. The institution became independent of the state in 1996, although it is financed by the Department of Education, Culture and Science. The mission of the National Library of the Netherlands is to promote the visibility, usability and longevity of the Dutch Library Collection, defined as the collective holdings of all publicly funded libraries in the Netherlands. Unhindered access to these collections furthers the development of new ideas and allows researchers to build upon the ideas of their predecessors. The library houses two collections: the deposit collection and the scholarly collection. The deposit collection contains nearly all material published in the Netherlands. The scholarly collection of the National Library focuses traditionally on the humanities and more recently also on the social sciences.

The National Library has been supporting open access for some years now. It has recently published a “how to find open access publications guidance” and it participates in the National Platform Open Science.

The Open Library of Humanities is an academic-led, gold open-access publisher with no author-facing charges. With 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.

Paula Clemente Vega, Marketing Officer for the Open Library of Humanities, welcomed the National Library of the Netherlands: “We are delighted to have the support of the National Library of the Netherlands. When libraries support the OLH, they are investing in the development of a scholar-led, community-owned and non-profit publishing ecosystem which we believe is crucial for the preservation and dissemination of open access scholarship. In particular for the humanities, so poorly funded by comparison to scientific disciplines.”

 Astrid van Wesenbeeck, KB’s open access officer, adds to this: “Free access to scholarly publications is so important for society. There’re people out there that need to read research for professional and personal purposes. In the last years we have seen an increase in demand from people who wish access to research publications. I have spoken with teachers, physicians, journalists, ICT and HR professionals and patient groups, and the awareness and need for open access are clearly growing. That’s why I am very happy with the KB supporting the OLH. It’s makes very clear that another way of open publishing is out there for the humanities and social sciences."