New Open Access Initiatives Highlight Non-STEM Fields

Open Access: Not Just for STEM

Three open access initiatives — supported in part by UC Libraries — are providing innovative publishing opportunities for academics in non-STEM fields:

• Luminos is the University of California Press’s new open-access publishing program for monographs. The Luminos business model upends the economics of scholarly monograph publishing by moving from a model supported by sales to academic libraries and individual readers to a multi-stakeholder, open-access model.
• Open Library of the Humanities (OLH) is an open-access endeavor that will begin with journals and eventually include monographs. Based in the United Kingdom and initially funded by the Mellon Foundation, OLH will be permanently funded by academic libraries via institutional memberships based on FTE.
• Also based in the UK, Open Book Publishers (OPB) offers 85 scholarly books with plans to add 12 books each year. Library memberships include free digital files and discounts on print editions. OBP books are published in hardback, paperback, pdf and e-book editions, but they also offer free online editions that can be read via the OPB website, downloaded, reused or embedded anywhere.

The California Digital Library is providing funding for all three of the above open-access initiatives on behalf of all UC libraries. A fourth open-access e-book collection, Knowledge Unlatched, is locally funded by the UC Merced Library as well as a number of other UC campuses.

Library Issues Priority Call for Course Resource Submissions

The UC Merced Library offers the Supplemental Course Resources (SCR) service to make additional course materials available to students online, while the Course Resource Program (CRP) offers faculty members an opportunity to provide complete print works available through the library.

With both services, library staff members respond to faculty requests by locating materials and making them available. SCR materials are scanned and posted to CatCourses while CRP materials at made available in the Library for limited circulation.

Visit Courses Resources for additional information. Requests can be submitted online. Requests submitted on or before Dec. 16 will be available before the first day of spring semester instruction.

Questions regarding these initiatives and services can be directed to the UC Merced Library.