UK Libraries partners with KY Press on Open Kentucky Open Access Initiative
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 14, 2024) — The University Press of Kentucky (KY Press) and University of Kentucky Libraries are partnering on a new Open Kentucky Open Access Initiative. Through this new program, UK Libraries will sponsor the publication of two books per year from the KY Press that will become open access titles. The focus of the initiative is to highlight and illuminate scholarship from Kentucky and the Appalachian region and ensure that it is widely discoverable and freely accessible worldwide.
For years, UK Libraries has collaborated with the KY Press to serve more than 350 K-12, college and university, and public libraries across the region with free and unlimited access to more than 1,300 books published by the KY Press. Those titles are accessible in electronic format via UK Libraries’ institutional repository, UKnowledge.
“I am thrilled that the University of Kentucky Libraries is able to expand our collaboration with the press to help make more of the tremendous Kentucky and Appalachian scholarship available to people across the Commonwealth and around the world,” said Doug Way, dean of libraries and William T. Young Endowed Chair.
Open access aims to make academic and professional materials such as books and articles available for free online, but it may not always adequately cover costs associated with producing quality information. This new initiative strives to address those costs in a sustainable way.
“As a lifelong Kentuckian, it’s an honor to be able to offer fellow readers in the Commonwealth access to free knowledge,” said Ashley Runyon, director of the University Press of Kentucky.
The first Open Kentucky Open Access title is scheduled for release in January 2025.
As the premier research library in the Commonwealth, UK Libraries empowers lifelong learners to discover, create and connect by providing ever-expanding access to quality information and collaborating with academic and creative communities worldwide to advance knowledge, enhance scholarship, and preserve the history and culture of the Commonwealth. More information about UK Libraries can be found on its website.
The University Press of Kentucky is the statewide nonprofit scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Serving all Kentucky state-sponsored institutions of higher learning as well as nine private colleges and Kentucky’s two major historical societies, it was organized in 1969 as successor to the University of Kentucky Press. The KY Press is dedicated to the publication of academic books of high scholarly merit as well as significant books about the history and culture of Kentucky, the Ohio Valley region, the Upper South and Appalachia.
As the state’s flagship, land-grant institution, the University of Kentucky exists to advance the Commonwealth. We do that by preparing the next generation of leaders — placing students at the heart of everything we do — and transforming the lives of Kentuckians through education, research and creative work, service and health care. We pride ourselves on being a catalyst for breakthroughs and a force for healing, a place where ingenuity unfolds. It's all made possible by our people — visionaries, disruptors and pioneers — who make up 200 academic programs, a $476.5 million research and development enterprise and a world-class medical center, all on one campus.
In 2022, UK was ranked by Forbes as one of the “Best Employers for New Grads” and named a “Diversity Champion” by INSIGHT into Diversity, a testament to our commitment to advance Kentucky and create a community of belonging for everyone. While our mission looks different in many ways than it did in 1865, the vision of service to our Commonwealth and the world remains the same. We are the University for Kentucky.