It is becoming increasingly clear that libraries, acting collectively, can have a major role in creating and sustaining non-profit, community owned, open access infrastructures as public goods. These networks may provide support indirectly, via collective financial support for third party entities, or directly by inter-connecting their existing physical infrastructures to create effective international public infrastructures. In this talk I will look at the opportunities and challenges faced by four library networks I have been involved in creating - two indirect and two direct. One lesson from all these is that the technical challenges are typically far easier to resolve than the administrative reforms within the libraries that are also necessary.
Event title
Open and Engaged 2023: Community over Commercialisation
