The Partnership for Open Access (POA) now includes new recognition levels for participating libraries, in order to better highlight the institutions supporting the POA’s mission to enable Diamond Open Access publishing in Canada.
Over the course of 2024, the POA got a top-to-bottom makeover as we celebrated its tenth anniversary, with a new logo, visual identity, and webpage. We also updated our messaging to highlight the growing majority of the journals supported through the POA that are diamond open access.
But on top of that, we also introduced new recognition levels for the 95+ libraries that contribute to the POA:
- Champions contribute at the level set by their consortium’s agreement and make an additional contribution to the Open Access Acceleration Fund.
- Partners contribute at the level set by their consortium’s agreement.
- Allies make a contribution to the Open Access Acceleration Fund.
Contributions to the Open Access Acceleration Fund increase the financial support provided to the diamond open access journals supported by the POA.
The renewal of our flagship agreement with the Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN) was the debut of these recognition levels. With a record total of 57 Canadian libraries participating in the agreement, we were delighted to recognize the generosity and commitment of 6 champion libraries, 43 partner libraries, and 8 ally libraries. All of the libraries and their levels are clearly listed on the POA’s webpage.
We are especially grateful to our champion libraries, who represent the cross-country support the POA enjoys: from the west (University of British Columbia), to Ontario (Queen’s University, York University, University of Ottawa) and Quebec (Université de Montréal, Université Laval) in the east. The additional contributions that these libraries make to the POA, above and beyond their regular fee, not only demonstrate their commitment to equitable open access, they also inject much needed funds into the budgets of diamond open access journals.
We’d also like to highlight a handful of libraries that are joining the POA this year for the first time: MacEwan University joins as Partner, while Bishop’s University, Nipissing University, and Royal Roads University all join as Allies. In the current climate of dwindling budgets, we are conscious of the challenges facing libraries, which makes these new commitments especially noteworthy.
And to support libraries who wish to promote their participation in the POA, we developed a library toolkit (currently available to CRKN members only) that includes logos, social media templates, and badges for each recognition level.