Following on from its highly successful Pilot concluded last year, Knowledge Unlatched is delighted to announce the launch of its second collection.

If at least 300 libraries from around the world pledge their commitment by 31 January 2016, 78 new Humanities and Social Sciences books will be made free for anyone in the world to read on an Open Access basis.

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The KU Collection includes 78 new books in five subject areas (Anthropology, History, Literature, Media & Communications and Politics) from 26 recognised scholarly publishers:

Amsterdam University Press
Berghahn Books
Bloomsbury Academic
Brandeis University Press
Brill
Cambridge University Press
University Press of Colorado
Dartmouth College Press
De Gruyter
Duke University Press
Edinburgh University Press
Fordham University Press
Leiden University Press
Liverpool University Press
Manchester University Press
University of Michigan Press
Monash University Publishing
Penn State University Press
Pluto Press
Purdue University Press
Routledge
Rutgers University Press
Temple University Press
University of Toronto Press
Ubiquity Press
Yale University Press

The collection is made up of eight packages – providing participating libraries the choice of supporting all eight or selecting at least six packages.

Knowledge Unlatched is inviting libraries to pledge a capped maximum of US$3,891 to ‘unlatch’ the whole collection. This is an average of just under US$50 for each book. Publishers have agreed to recognise additional format purchases by participating libraries with a deduction made on the KU unlatching fee.

The Knowledge Unlatched model is based on libraries from around the world sharing the payment of a single ‘Title Fee’ to publishers, in return for books being made available as a fully downloadable PDF via OAPEN and HathiTrust on a Creative Commons licence upon publication. Because the Title Fee is a fixed amount, as more libraries participate, the per-library cost of ‘unlatching’ each title declines.

Libraries can view the collection and pledge their interest at:
http://collections.knowledgeunlatched.org/

Pledging will remain open until 31 January 2016.

About

Knowledge Unlatched is committed to creating a positive change in scholarly communication landscapes by helping libraries to share the costs of publishing high quality specialist scholarly books and making them available in Open Access. By working together libraries and publishers can create a sustainable route to Open Access for scholarly books.

Contact

Christina Emery

Partnership Manager, Knowledge Unlatched
christina@knowledgeunlatched.org