University of Kassel joins OLH LPS model

We are extremely pleased to announce that the University of Kassel has joined the Open Library of Humanities' Library Partnership Subsidy system. The University of Kassel, known in German as Universität Kassel and informally as Uni Kassel, is a public university located in Kassel, Hesse, in central Germany. It was founded in 1971 and describes itself as “a European university” with “an international focus”. With more than 23,000 students and approximately 1,800 scholars, among them more than 300 professors, the University of Kassel is one of Germany’s mid-sized universities. The University is organised into seven schools: engineering sciences; natural sciences; architecture, urban planning and landscape planning; international agriculture and environmental protection; social sciences; humanities; and fine arts. 

The University Library of Kassel provides access to approximately 1.9 million volumes, including 30,000 current periodicals. In addition to the tasks of a university library, it fulfills the mandate of a state library (collection and indexing of regional literature) as well as that of a scientific citizen library for the region. Outstanding historical holdings such as the unique Hildebrand song or the Willehalm code also count among the special features of the Kassel University Library.

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.

Paula Clemente Vega, Marketing Officer for the Open Library of Humanities, welcomed the University of Kassel: "It is fantastic to have the support of the University of Kassel. Author-pays models for gold open access are definitely not a viable option for the social sciences and the humanities due to the scarcity of funds. With the support of institutions such as the University of Kassel, we will continue to build a non-APC open access landscape for the humanities."

Dr. Axel Halle, Head Librarian at the University Library of Kassel added: "While the faculties of natural sciences and organic agriculture make strong use of our Open Access fund the OLH membership enables us to also support the social sciences and humanities where APCs are uncommon."