A new service for Open Access Monographs: the Directory of Open Access Books.

OAPEN is pleased to announce a new service for Open Access monographs: the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB). DOAB will provide a searchable index to peer-reviewed monographs and edited volumes published under an Open Access business model, with links to the full texts of the publications at the publisher’s website or repository. The beta version of the service will contain publications of a selected number of academic publishers. The beta version will be made public early spring 2012.

 The primary aim of DOAB is to increase discoverability of Open Access books. Academic publishers will be invited to provide the metadata of their Open Access books to the DOAB. Metadata will be harvestable in order to maximize dissemination, visibility and impact. Aggregators can integrate the records in their commercial services and libraries can integrate the directory into their online catalogues, thereby helping scholars, students and the general public to discover the books. The directory will be open to all academic publishers and should contain as many books as possible, provided that these books are peer reviewed and published in Open Access. DOAB will determine requirements for publishers to qualify as Open Access academic book publishers and will maintain a certification procedure.

A number of academic publishers have already expressed their interest in taking part in the further development of the service; among them are members of the OAPEN Library such as Amsterdam University Press and Göttingen University Press, and other well-known Open Access publishers such as Open Book Publishers, Open Humanities Press, MPublishing and Athabasca University Press. OpenEdition, a portal dedicated to electronic resources in the humanities (www.openedition.org), will also take part in the beta phase of DOAB.

DOAB will be launched by the OAPEN Foundation. The idea for DOAB has been developed with Lars Bjørnshauge and Salam Baker Shanawa (director of SemperTool), who were also responsible for the development of the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). Both will be involved in the further development of DOAB.

OAPEN will manage the service and approach publishers to provide the metadata of their Open Access books. OAPEN (Open Access Publishing in European Networks, www.oapen.org) started in 2008 as an EU-funded project coordinated by Amsterdam University Press. The OAPEN Foundation is an international initiative dedicated to Open Access monograph publishing, based at the National Library in The Hague. OAPEN develops Open Access models for books and works with academic publishers and research institutes to build a collection of Open Access books through the OAPEN Library. OAPEN is currently involved in two pilot projects in the Netherlands and the UK experimenting with Open Access monograph publishing.

SemperTool will develop and maintain the service. SemperTool (www.sempertool.dk) is a software development company specializing in building digital library technologies, as well as providing hosting and consulting services. Salam Baker Shanawa, director of SemperTool, was in charge of development of DOAJ while employed at Lund University, and for the past two years SemperTool has been responsible for further development and maintenance of DOAJ.  SemperTool offers a range of reliable and cost-effective software solutions for digital libraries, and serves more than 100 universities in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

Lars Bjørnshauge will be involved in the further development of DOAB and its business model. Lars founded and managed DOAJ during his service as Director of Libraries at Lund University, Sweden. Currently Lars is SPARC’s Director of European Library relations and Senior Advisor to the National Library of Sweden.

For more information, please contact Eelco Ferwerda, director of the OAPEN Foundation, e.ferwerda@oapen.org, +31(0)629565168.