National Library of Finland becomes new Opening the Future member
Posted by Tom Grady on Dec. 13, 2021 at 1420
CEU Press are pleased to
announce that the National Library of Finland is a new member of their Opening
the Future (OtF) programme. With roots stretching back to 1640 and to the
establishment of the Academy of Turku, the National Library is a cultural
heritage organisation that is open to all, providing nationwide services to
citizens, scientific communities, and others.
The National Library has
chosen to sign up to the Library Selection Package containing 50 books selected
by an independent panel of librarians. This selection is a cross-section of the
other three packages and represents those CEU Press titles that might be of
interest to a library across a number of disciplines.
The Library's membership fee allows
CEU Press to make new books open in ways that do not burden authors that do not
have research grants to pay book processing charges. The Press has already
released its first OA book funded entirely by Opening the Future members, and has another 5 in the pipeline.
Emily Poznanski, CEU Press
Director, welcoming the Library to the programme, said “The National Library of
Finland, like other members supporting our initiative, are contributing to
levelling the playing field for authors as well as readers; they are helping
the Press to provide a more cost-effective way of publishing scholarly research
and passing those savings on to the library community.”
A spokesperson for the
Library said, “We are very happy that we were in a position to join the list of
supporters. We have acquired many printed books published by CEU Press over the
years and therefore joining the membership programme was natural.”
CEU Press will only use the library’s membership fees to produce new (and otherwise unfunded) frontlist titles in an open access format. CEU Press is a leading publisher in the history of communism and transitions to democracy; it is widely recognised as the foremost English-language university press dedicated to research on Central and Eastern Europe and the former communist countries.
If you would like to see how your library might similarly enhance your digital collection of eBooks by becoming a member of Opening the Future, you can read more about the programme and benefits on the website.