Central European Press “Opening the Future” Project Now Live

From a CEU Press Announcement:

Central European University (CEU) Press, in partnership with COPIM, is pleased to announce that our Opening the Future platform is now fully live, and member access to the programme’s curated backlist of books is available from Tuesday 19th January, through Project MUSE.

Opening the Future gives member libraries subscription access to portions of the Press’s highly-regarded backlist and uses the revenue to fund future/new publications in an Open Access (OA) format. We’ve been working hard with our platform partner, Project MUSE, to set up a simple sign-up and payment process, and technical access to the books. We’re pleased to say that this is all ready to go and already accepting memberships.

Frances Pinter, Executive Chair at CEU Press said, “I am very proud that in such a short space of time the project partners have pulled together a new avenue for libraries to make the most of stretched budgets and to increase their collections. For Opening the Future members, multi-user DRM-free access to our books begins on 19th January and we are already well on our way to funding our first OA title through their subscriptions.”

All members will receive perpetual access to their package of backlist books after three years, and libraries can join at any time: their access will begin once payment is completed.

If a library doesn’t want, or doesn’t need, access to the backlist they can still support the scheme by subscribing to an OA Supporter Membership. Contributions will assist CEU Press’s Open Access ambitions.

CEU Press is working with Work Package 3 of the COPIM project who helped to devise and set up the programme and platform. COPIM WP3 lead, Professor Martin Paul Eve, based at Birkbeck, University of London, said “Officially ‘switching on’ access to the backlist packages is a real milestone for our project which is working with libraries, funders and publishers to devise and initiate sustainable routes to Open Access monograph publishing. We hope that more and more libraries will find that signing up to Opening the Future is a cost-effective way to increase their digital collections with relevant and high-quality content.”

For libraries wanting to know more about how to join Opening the Future, including fees and what books you will get access to, more information can be found at openingthefuture.net. If you’d like to discuss this announcement or would like more information not answered in the FAQs then please contact Professor Martin Paul Eve at martin.eve@bbk.ac.uk and Dr Frances Pinter at PinterF@press.ceu.edu.

Hat Tip: Project Muse

Filed under: Companies (Publishers/Vendors), Digital Collections, Funding, Interactive Tools, Libraries, News, Open Access, Publishing