The Copim perspective on Bibliodiversity

This is part of a short series of posts on four key Copim concepts: Community-led, Scale, Sustainability and Bibliodiversity. Each post will be linked to the others once it is published."Bibliodiversity is cultural diversity applied to the world of books.Echoing biodiversity, it refers to the critical diversity of products [] made available to readers". 1 Whilst biodiversity allows ecosystems to survive and thrive, bibliodiversity is necessary to ensure a healthy publishing ecosystem that serves writers and readers.At Copim, we believe that "critical diversity" in publishing's methods and outputs must be enhanced, protected and celebrated.But what should "bibliodiversity" look like?Since the term emerged in the 90s, 2 bibliodiversity has become an ambition regularly invoked by academic publishers and other initiatives.Bibliodiversity is, for instance, mentioned eleven times in a blog post introducing JSTOR's Path to Open funding model for OA books. 3Yet, as with any stated commitment to diversity, organisations must be ready to back up their claims to advocacy with nuanced definitions and tangible action.In its original context, bibliodiversity referred to language diversity in publishing, but the term can be expanded to embrace broader diversities in publishing cultures.AtCopim then, what do we think the pursuit of bibliodiversity should encompass, how do we think it can and should be achieved, and how are we taking action to support it through our own work?