Trailblazers: Collaborating with other libraries to develop a new initiative

<p dir="ltr">Conference slides and presentation recording of 'Trailblazers: Collaborating with other libraries to develop a new initiative' as part of the Academic Libraries North Conference 2025.</p><p dir="ltr">This short paper will discuss how three academic libraries worked collaboratively with a university press to develop an open access book publishing scheme for early career researchers. It will begin by introducing the concept of open access books and the challenges this poses to libraries. It will then provide an overview of the Trailblazers initiative, an open access initiative which provides selected early career authors with the opportunity to publish a fully funded Open Access Book with Liverpool University Press. The scheme was founded and developed by the Library's of Lancaster University, the University of Liverpool, and the University of Salford and Liverpool University Press. The talk will explore why this collaborative approach was adopted, and institutions have benefited from working with each other.</p>