Lyrasis is Open + The Library is Open!

With the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Meeting quickly approaching next week, June 23 - 26, we are excited to share our theme for the year ahead: Lyrasis is Open + The Library Is Open!

As a member-driven and community-focused organization, Lyrasis is here to support you. Over the past decade that has meant being deeply committed to open access, open knowledge and open technologies as foundational tools for the success of libraries, archives, museums and research institutions. This commitment has only grown over the years. We continue to partner with institutions seeking to make scholarly resources more openly accessible,  we invest in vital open source solutions through staff, time and financial resources, we proudly serve as the home for crucial community programs, we offer top tier support and hosting services for open source technologies, and we work directly with publishers and researchers to create and fund new open access models, lowering the barriers for participation for institutions across the nation.

This year, as we approach ALA in a climate where libraries of all types are under fire for providing access to banned books, we are reminded of our organizational mission to  “provide equitable access to the world’s knowledge and cultural heritage.” To that end, we are expanding our definition of “open” to include the libraries themselves.

Lyrasis is Open, yes. We also believe the library should be open for all!

Lyrasis believes in cultivating and upholding a culture that not only supports initiatives of open access, open knowledge and open source across cultural heritage communities, but also supports inclusive access to knowledge as well.

Open to Inclusiveness: Read the Rainbow 

Acknowledging people of all colors, races, creeds, choices and lifestyles, we openly advocate not only for the books but for the people whose stories and journeys are contained within these books. People should see themselves in the world, in the communities they live in, and within literature. With knowledge and understanding, together we make the pledge to Read the Rainbow. In that spirit, The Palace Project has curated a collection of titles that highlight diversity and inclusion.

Open Source Community Supported Programs

Lyrasis is proud to be home to a variety of open source community supported programs.

  • ArchivesSpace is an open source archives information management application for managing and providing web access to archives, manuscripts and digital objects.
  • CollectionSpace is open source software for museums, galleries and archives to manage and share their collections.
  • DSpace is the software of choice for academic, non-profit and commercial organizations building open digital repositories.
  • Fedora is a robust, modular, open source repository middleware for the management and dissemination of digital content.
  • VIVO is an open source software and an ontology for representing scholarship.

Lyrasis Hosted Open Source Services

Lyrasis is proud to offer best-of-field technology solutions including open source software hosting, migration and technical support that allows your institution to focus on what it does best and deliver unparalleled content to your users. Our current hosting services include: 

Open Access Community Investment Program

The Lyrasis Open Access Community Investment Program (OACIP) provides a community-driven framework that enables multiple stakeholders — including academic and public libraries, academic departments, institutions, museums, and funding agencies — to evaluate and collectively fund Diamond Open Access (OA) journals.

The current investment window is open now through July 2023.

Open Research Infrastructure

In addition to open access initiatives, Lyrasis supports three open research infrastructure programs in the United States (U.S.) designed to lower the barrier of participation for libraries of different sizes, missions, and constituencies to use open infrastructure best practices.

Open Access

Lyrasis embraces Open Access by providing a number of Open Access Programs for Lyrasis Members. Thanks to many of our partners, we have negotiated a number of offers just for you as part of our Open Access Member Discount offerings from  Bloomsbury, Journal of City of Climate Policy, Lever Press, just to name a few.

Explore additional Open Access Programs supported by Lyrasis.

Lyrasis at ALA

At the American Libraries Association Annual Meeting from June 23 to 26, our booth, #1626, will be open to attendees both in person and virtually to embrace our commitment to all things Open. Follow us online on Twitter (and use the hashtag #lyrasisisopen), LinkedIn and on Lyrasisnow.org for updates on our Open initiatives.