The Fifth Annual LyrOpen Fair: 2026
The Fifth Annual LyrOpen Fair
The fifth annual LyrOpen Fair was held virtually from March 24 to April 2, 2026, with five webinars exploring the open research and scholarship ecosystem. Recordings of each session are available below. Thanks again for joining us for this exciting annual event!
Session 1: Planting Seeds for Sustainability (view recording)
This webinar brought together partners that support publishers participating in Opening the Future to reflect on the role their infrastructures play in the program’s success. Speakers discussed how established services underpin the discovery, distribution, and long term sustainability of open access books, work that is often essential yet largely invisible. The conversation highlighted how these partners, operating alongside one another, support knowledge mobility and contribute to sustainable approaches to open access book publishing across different disciplinary communities and regions. We also spoke about ways in which this community can be brought together to share knowledge and advocate collaboratively in making OA books freely available to all, globally, through Opening the Future.
Speakers were: Jason Colman, Director of Publishing Services, Michigan Publishing; Philip Hearn, Publisher Relations Manager for Books, Project MUSE; Stephanie Kitchen, Co-director, African Books Collective; Robin N. Sinn, Interim Associate University Librarian and Director of Collections & Open Strategies, Iowa State University Library
Session 2: Publishing for Change: The Value of Diamond Open Access Journals (view recording)
When investments in Diamond Open Access journals are considered in academic libraries, the deliberations often hinge on demonstrating the local return on investment. This is not an easy task given that go-to methods of assessing a journal’s value rely on the number of affiliated scholars engaging with the journal, proxies of prestige, and quantitative usage data. These criteria reinforce the dominance of long-running publications embedded within commercial research and publishing infrastructure that has been designed to track such metrics. How can we make our evaluation processes more open to innovative, experimental journals that are committed to changing the publishing status quo and giving back to their communities? In this webinar, editors of the Diamond Open Access journals Global Social Challenges Journal and Language, Literature, and Interdisciplinary Studies encouraged attendees to consider the values that underlie a journal when assessing its value. They also spoke to the transformative potential of community investment in Diamond Open Access and shared how funding received through the Lyrasis Open Access Community Investment Program (OACIP) has helped sustain their journals.
Speakers were: Katie Foxall, Senior Journals Development Editor, Bristol University Press; Nikita Goel, Editor, Language, Literature, and Interdisciplinary Studies
Session 3: Understanding the Impact of Open: Library Experiences from the Field (view recording)
This session highlighted the evolving work of librarians who support researchers, institutions, and communities in understanding and demonstrating the impact of open access, open infrastructure, and open science practices. Panelists shared practical insights into how they define, assess, and communicate the impact of open research across different contexts.
Speakers were: Sheila Craft-Morgan, Research Impact Librarian and Assistant Professor, The Ohio State University; Rachel Borchardt, Scholarly Communications Librarian, American University; Ameet Doshi, Head, Donald E. Stokes Library, Princeton University
Session 4: AI & Open Access: Misconceptions, Opportunities, Risks (view recording)
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) creates opportunities and risks for the scholarly communication ecosystem, especially in the context of open access publishing and platforms. In this webinar, a group of community experts engaged in a wide-ranging panel discussion about open access in the context of AI. Panelists addressed common misconceptions about AI, explored ethical and human-centered applications of AI tools, and discussed key intersections between AI and OA in licensing, publishing, and libraries.
Speakers were: Colleen Cressman, Librarian for Open Publishing, Harvard Library; Melanie Gainey, Director of Open Science & Data Collaborations Program, Carnegie Mellon University Libraries; Dave Hansen, Executive Director, Authors Alliance; Anna Wałek, Head of Technology, OAPEN Foundation
Session 5: Open as an Institutional Asset: Advancing Shared Goals through Cross-Campus Collaboration (view recording)
“Open” practices (open access, open infrastructure, open science, and related initiatives) are increasingly central to how universities advance their core missions in research, teaching, and public service. While libraries are often leaders in the “open” space, cross-campus collaboration is essential to support openness as a shared institutional asset and a foundation for sustainable, impactful scholarship. This webinar presented an overview of why “open” matters beyond the library, with perspectives from research administrators and librarians at three public universities. We heard how universities are supporting institutional priorities, such as research integrity, scholarly impact, policy compliance, and trust, through partnerships on “open” initiatives.
Speakers were: Lori Schultz, Assistant Vice President for Research Administration, Colorado State University; Catherine Stollar-Peters, Director of Research Data and Strategy for the Office of Research, Innovation, and Economic Development, State University of New York (SUNY) system; Jeremy Katz, Research Impact Librarian, Florida State University