Open access books: If not now, when?

A presentation that outlines the troubling contemporary context for scholarly publishing, including open access publishing, before going on to argue that many of the key building blocks for the expansion of non-profit, community-led open access publishing are already in place. The presentation highlights the work of four initiatives in particular: Open Book Collective, PKP and its Open Monograph Press software, Thoth Open Metadata and OAPEN/Directory of Open Access Books. The presentation was delivered as a keynote talk presentation at the National Open Access Stakeholders Conference 2025, titled 'Reclaiming Academic Sovereignty: Nigeria’s National Summit on Open Access Book Publishing'.