Metadata, dissemination challenges & open community solutions for open access books

Presentation from a panel session on the second day of the Copim Conference 2026, a hybrid event (26-27 February) focusing on the future of community-led open access books. Book Publishing at the Iowa State University Digital Press (Harrison W. Inefuku) University presses in LatAm and knowledge circulation. The urgent need for metadata for book visibility (Edgar Alejandro García Valencia) Metadata and Dissemination Challenges, and Open Community Solutions for Open Access Books: A Metadata Librarian’s Perspective (Emma Booth) Abstract: Open access books promise unrestricted access to knowledge, but unreliable, inconsistent, and siloed metadata that cannot be easily shared and re-used due to licensing restrictions prevents discovery and library integration at scale. Libraries and discovery platforms still struggle to ingest and expose OA book content properly because metadata is fragmented, incomplete, or incompatible with existing library workflows. This panel brings together experts from different backgrounds to diagnose these varied issues related to book metadata and dissemination, ranging from the question of “What is a book?”, to issues of ingest pipelines and adoption of PIDs and controlled vocabularies in the books space. Panellists will also seek to discuss benefits of, and potential barriers to, establishing practical, community-led solutions that make OA books findable and re-usable within as well as outside of library systems.