NASIG, along with its publishing partner, Michigan Publishing, is thrilled to announce that NASIG Proceedings (ISSN 2995-214X) is now available! As promised in our initial announcement, all content is freely available under a Creative Commons license. There is no embargo period or registration required to read the content, and each article is assigned a DOI for improved linking and access.

The first issue is vol. 37 and features content from the 37th NASIG Annual Conference held in-person and online in Baltimore, MD from 5-8 June, 2022. From its first conference in 1986 through to its 36th annual event in 2021, NASIG conference proceedings were previously published in the Spring of the following year by Taylor & Francis in a double issue of The Serials Librarian. NASIG and Taylor & Francis collaborated to make these proceedings freely available as well. Back issues are listed on the NASIG Annual Proceedings page.

NASIG Proceedings is the result of collaboration between many conference presenters and session recorders volunteering their time and energy, and reflects the best of our collaborative and supportive community. Issuing NASIG Proceedings as Open Access aligns us more closely with the needs and expectations of our community, and addresses important aspects of our strategic plan (for example, see Strategic Direction #3: Support New and Ongoing Developments Related to the Management and Accessibility of Information Resources). Overall, Open Access increases the visibility and impact of research and promotes collaboration within the scholarly community

In celebrating this significant milestone, NASIG President, Courtney McAllister (Atypon), noted:

The transition of NASIG Proceedings to Open Access (OA) is an important reminder of what we can achieve as a member-driven and member-led organization. OA Proceedings are important to our membership, and NASIG rose to the challenge of making that vision a reality! The Open Initiatives Committee performed an exemplary analysis of NASIG’s publishing options. Once we moved towards implementing the transition, our Proceedings Editors worked very hard to liaise with Michigan and adapt to an entirely new workflow, while the Communications Committee optimized NASIG’s branding and visibility throughout the process. Many thanks to these volunteers, and others, for supporting this transition and serving library practitioners within and beyond the NASIG community!

Paul Moeller (University of Colorado Boulder), NASIG Vice President/President-Elect, also added:

I am delighted that NASIG has been able to make the Proceedings immediately open to the world. Transitioning to an Open Access publishing model for the Proceedings has been a key goal for the organization which has long supported open and affordable scholarly communication initiatives. Many thanks to the Open Initiative Committee, the Proceedings Editors and to all who contributed to the move.

We look forward to the 2023 conference proceedings, as well as those into the future, being made available in the same way for the benefit of the scholarly community in library and information science.