Open Textbook Cooperative

The Global Open Textbook Co-operative is a 1 year pilot project of the Simon Fraser University Library and the Public Knowledge Project (PKP) to investigate the interest in and viability of a co-operative model for supporting the creation and sharing of open textbooks.

The project takes inspiration from the global community that has come together around the Public Knowledge Project to create an open, academia-controlled publishing alternative; the explorations into publishing co-operatives as a form of association by PKP, SPARC, and others; from the successes of existing open textbook projects such as the work of BC Campus; and from the opportunities arising from the upcoming release of the latest version of Open Monograph Press, PKP's free, open source software for book publishing (expected for release in 2016).

Over the next year, the project will create a dedicated open textbook publishing platform using OMP 1.2 software, which will provide a robust, professional editorial workflow for book or chapter submission, review, copyediting, layout, and production.

It will also be possible to re-purpose and re-assemble existing chapters, documents, images, etc. into new publications, providing they are already available under an open license.

Once the content is ready for publication, it can be displayed on the co-operative's platform, or exported to another open textbook platform, such as PressBooks.

At the same time as we develop and begin using the technology, we will also be exploring the viability of a co-operative organizational structure, which will bring together universities, colleges, libraries and other stakeholders into a transparent and democratic, membership-based association. Our participation in the Open Access Publishing Co-operative Study will help us develop our understanding in this area.

Co-operative members will not only participate in decision-making, but will also contribute to the ongoing funding through a sliding scale of membership fees (to be determined by the initial group of participants based on anticipated operational costs).

If you would like to be part of this initial pilot group, please consider joining us.

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