Further logistics and workflows

You will need to make some updates to your Press website (or host an additional website) in order to implement Opening the Future effectively; libraries need clear information about what is on offer, and what the funds raised are for. You will need at least:

A page which provides a list of your backlist offerings (if multiple).
Linked on the above page, the individual package pages. These should contain:
A description of the backlist package on offer.
The price bands for different institutions, and for the duration of their subscription (noting any annual increases).
A full list of the titles in the backlist packages.
If possible, it is also useful to embed a downloadable Excel file with the backlist package titles and metadata for the library to use.
A link to the sign up process you use.*
A general page about the model, why you are implementing it, how it works, and the key benefits to the library and the publisher, as well as some information about your press. You will have your own reasons for implementation and what benefits you feel your particular offering has to libraries; the information on how it works can be adapted from this resource.
An FAQ page of useful information for libraries and authors; we have reproduced our FAQ page in this Infohub for you to draw from.
A page listing and thanking your library supporters.
A page collating the list of titles you have published so far using Opening the Future and, if you can, titles that are earmarked for Opening the Future but are still forthcoming. This should contain links to access the titles, be that on OAPEN or elsewhere.
ADD IN EVALUATION CRITERIA LATER

*If you are hosting with Jisc and Lyrasis, this might be links directly to their subscription manager pages where they can sign up for your offering (or a link to another page that hosts those links together). For billing done outside of Jisc and Lyrasis, this will need to be a form of some sort that triggers a notification to your finance department, and provides them with the necessary information, which will usually be the library, the library contact, the package they have signed up for, and the library’s IP range for the backlist package host to implement. For more information, please see our page titled ‘Sign-up Workflow’ and 'Sign-up Infrastructure' immediately below.

Sign-up Workflow

Despite its seeming simplicity, the workflow for Opening the Future is relatively complex, with multiple actors involved at different times. Coordination between different parties requires care and a technological infrastructure that can handle the effort.

The workflow has to handle the following core activities:

• Library sign up
• Payment processing
• Access control management
• Library cancellation

Actors and Actions 

Actors	Action	Notes
Library	Completes form on website	Triggers email alerts to correct contacts at the Press and intermediaries
Jisc, Lyrasis, Press	Depending on the region (or on your partnerships), Jisc, Lyrasis or the Press itself must process the signup. In the case of Jisc, the Library may also have to complete a signup on Jisc's system instead.	If a library signs up through Jisc’s independent catalogue platform, it may be necessary to duplicate the signup data into the Press’s own CRM system and OtF site.
Jisc, Lyrasis, Press, Project MUSE, Other platforms	The Press or intermediary (Jisc, Lyrasis) informs the platform provider (e.g. Project MUSE) that access should be granted to the signup institution	By default we recommend enabling access before payment is received and retracting it if not received within 3 months.
Jisc, Lyrasis, Press	Issue invoice to Library.
Press	Send welcome email to Library.	This welcome email is an opportunity to thank the library and should include: Details of access to subscription packages A proposed announcement of the Library’s signup (see under Marketing and Outreach)
Library	Cancellation	If a library cancels within the three year window, access should be revoked.

Sign-up Infrastructure

DeliveryAt ofits Subscription Content

A core part ofcore, the Openingsign-up the Future modelprocess is the delivery of subscriptionvarious pieces of information from the library to you, the publisher. These are: 

• The identity and location of the library. 
• The library's IP range for your content delivery provider to participatingswitch libraries.on Thistheir requiresaccess considerationto of:the ADDbacklist. TEXT?

• Which package(s) they would like to sign up to.
• A contact for you to invoice and to discuss various payment details such as if they will pay all three years upfront or in annual instalments. 
  

As noted before, Jisc and Lyrasis will provide this sort of technical sign-up functionality on their subscription manager platforms which you can link to on your site. But if you are managing your own subscriptions, and for subscriptions outside of the UK and US, you will need your own sign-up infrastructure. You may already have internal processes and CMSs that you can adapt to use on your Opening the Future programme.programme Butin order to do this. If not, it can be as simple as a sign up form, such as Google Forms, which triggers a notification to you with the relevant information in order to process the sign up. 

Alternatively, we also provide a signup platform is available at the Github repository of the Birkbeck Centre for Technology and Publishing. The platform is written in Django/python and is available under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0.

Features of this platform include:

• CMS system
• Ability to collect signup data
• Access control management system
• Multi-tenant hosting (more than one press per install)
• News and updates system
• Per user and per role access control

Running the signup infrastructure requires an independent web host capable of serving wsgi applications in python. The overheads of running this system locally should be matched to the Press’s in-house technical capacity. As always, the cost of free software must be measured in the time that it takes for an in-house individual to maintain a site vs. the cost of externalising/outsourcing such provision. Additionally, this will not be supported after April 2026. Therefore, unless you are confident that you have the technological capability to implement and sustain this, we do not recommend that you use it. 

URL: https://github.com/BirkbeckCTP/signup 

At its

Delivery of Subscription Content

A core though, you just need a sign up form for libraries. This can be done using any number of easy to maintain and use pieces of software, even Google Form or other generic contact forms.

• The coherencepart of the subscriptionOpening packages.the ItFuture model is vitalthe delivery of subscription content to participating libraries.

  This is a process that thewill be familiar to libraries via their ordinary subscriptions and other forms of collections ofaccess. titlesAs exhibitdetailed bothin academicthe previous section on Organisational Partnerships, there are multiple options (listed are Project MUSE, Fulcrum and commercialSciendo), appeal.

who
• you may already have a relationship with. 

  The conditions of access.access must be made clear in your offering. It is important that the content is hosted on a reputable platform that delivers appropriate metadata in standards-compliant formats and that the content is indexed in order to appear in library discoverability services. SomeThe platform providers,hosts suchwe assuggested Projectare MUSE, can helpable to fulfilprovide thesethis. criteria.

Additionally,
• Theyou licensing.must make clear the licensing terms under which the libraries will have access to the backlist package. See the next section on SERU for the easiest path towards licensing of subscription content.
• In addition, there are a number of ‘gotchas’ that must be considered for the delivery of subscription content.

Fixed Packages Should Not Change

While it is tempting to believe that packages can be reconfigured at will, the ability to deliver custom packages is beholden to the restrictions of external suppliers. For instance, ensuring consistent metadata is delivered to Project MUSE means that once a package has been setup by the remote supplier, it should be fixed permanently. This also allows libraries to ensure that once they have access to a package, it is never withdrawn, unless they cancel.