Simon Fraser University joins OLH LPS model

We are extremely pleased to announce that Simon Fraser University has joined the Open Library of Humanities’ Library Partnership Subsidy system. Founded in 1965, SFU has become Canada’s leading comprehensive university with vibrant campuses in British Columbia’s largest municipalities — Vancouver, Burnaby and Surrey — and deep roots in partner communities throughout the province and around the world.

The SFU Library has an international reputation as a technologically innovative site which is best exemplified by its role as the home for several major open source software projects including the Public Knowledge Project. PKP develops and supports a range of scholarly communications software applications including Open Journal Systems (OJS) which in 2015 was being used by over 8600 active journals around the world. 

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.

Professor Martin Paul Eve, a founder and academic project director of the OLH, welcomed SFU: “Simon Fraser University has a long and productive engagement with open-access and new publishing technologies. I am therefore delighted that SFU has joined the OLH model, just one of several initiatives that aim to bring open access to the humanities.”

Patty Gallilee, Associate University Librarian, Collections & Scholarly Communication at SFU Library commented: “The SFU Library is very interested in initiatives that advance the Open Access agenda which is why we are so pleased to join the OLH by becoming a supporting institution. By focusing on the humanities & social sciences and on both journal & monograph publishing we feel the OLH speaks to disciplines and formats that are in need of increased OA publishing supports. We also applaud the OLH’s innovative crowdfunding model which eases the financial burden on individual researchers.”

Existing subscription journals wishing to move to the platform should submit an initial enquiry to martin.eve@openlibhums.org. 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 can join through Jisc Collections at http://www.jisc-collections.ac.uk/Catalogue/Overview/Index/2120. US-based libraries can join through LYRASIS at https://lyrasis.openlibhums.org.