Knowledge Unlatched and BiblioLabs team to provide improved access to Open Access materials worldwide

Berlin/Charleston, 18.04.17. Knowledge Unlatched (KU), the Open Access (OA) initiative supporting monographs in the Humanities and Social Sciences, and BiblioLabs, the Charleston, SC based software company that has built BiblioBoard, an end-to-end platform for the creation, curation and distribution of OA materials, are partnering to improve mobile and browser-based access to a growing library of KU content.

The project will also measure the wider impact and usage of OA materials by cross-promoting KU titles and leveraging BiblioLabs’ robust usage tracking infrastructure that captures key data points without compromising the anonymity of readers. While KU will continue to host its titles on the OAPEN and HathiTrust platforms, it will expand the hosting of the entire collection to a KU Cloud Library built on the BiblioBoard technology. Anyone in the world will have access to the collections on an award-winning technology platform, which is integrated with a robust Tableau-based data warehouse to measure high-level and more granular impacts around the world.

“The broad use of content is at the core of Open Access, and it is very important to Knowledge Unlatched,” says Dr. Sven Fund, Managing Director of KU. “We are excited to partner with BiblioLabs to be able to move beyond offering just PDF downloads to delivering a modern reading and interactive user experience to users of KU e-books.”

“We’re delighted to partner with Knowledge Unlatched to make these high-quality titles available in a global user experience that is fully mobile and built for the modern student and researcher,” added Mitchell Davis, CEO at BiblioBoard. “In addition to making these works open to the world on our public access platform, we are also integrating them into the digital collections of several state libraries and hundreds of public libraries, ensuring democratized and widespread access to this important and growing collection. Teachers will able to quickly create course curriculum, and students will have single source access with tools such as notes, bookmarks, citations and an offline bookshelf.”

Continued study of usage and impact will be under the auspices of KU Research led by Associate Professor Lucy Montgomery of Curtin University, Australia. The entire Open Access e-book collection can be accessed and used through BiblioBoard Public Access and is available here.

About BiblioLabs:

BiblioLabs is a leader in Open Education Resource (OER) and OA content creation, curation and distribution software to academic institutions. Based in Charleston, South Carolina, their BiblioBoard platform aims to transform student and researcher access to information by delivering a simple, intuitive and modern user experience and delivering the best OER and OA content creation tools. They work with public and academic institutions of all sizes to democratize access to information and lower costs for students.

About Knowledge Unlatched:

Knowledge Unlatched is an Open Access cooperative funding Open Access books and journals in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Founded by Frances Pinter in 2012, the initiative has so far unlatched nearly 500 titles and is presently launching its fourth round, KU Select 2017 with 350 monographs, both frontlist and backlist.

Read or download the PDF versions of this press release in English or German, or contact Knowledge Unlatched for more information.