Knowledge Unlatched’s Pilot Collection is proving attractive to more than university libraries. A public policy and business research consultancy company has signed up to the KU Pilot, wishing to support the KU proof-of-concept. This shows that there is a greater mission to support: a social concern for the current state of monograph publishing and understanding the need for self-sustaining Open Access.

In addition, not just Humanities and Social Sciences but also other disciplines are taking an interest in the KU Pilot. KU was very excited to announce that the Wellcome Library has pledged its support for Knowledge Unlatched by signing up for the Pilot Collection. The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation dedicated to achieving extraordinary improvements in human and animal health.

A recent newsletter from the largest US academic law library consortium NELLCO said the following about KU:

This is a bold and creative project, and a model for deep collaboration among libraries globally. Consider being a leader in this effort. Libraries that participate in the pilot will have several advantages, such as participation in the governance of KU, and membership fees waived for a period following the pilot. If you can't participate, this one's worth watching!

Taken from our mission statement, we believe that by working together libraries can create a sustainable route to Open Access for scholarly books secure long-term cost savings for their own institutions by sharing the costs of making HSS monographs available on a Creative Commons licence.

You can view the list of which institutions have signed up so far on our Pilot Collections website. Tell your library about the KU Pilot today!