The Center for Research Libraries (CRL) and its NERL licensing program have renewed their agreement with MIT Press to continue supporting the successful MIT Direct to Open (D2O) program for 2026. This renewal underscores the collective leverage of CRL and NERL members, who—through coordinated negotiation—achieve favorable terms and expanded access to scholarship that would be unattainable for individual institutions on their own.
A key enhancement for 2026 is the expanded content offering. For the first time, D2O supporters can now opt to include collections from Duke University Press and Goldsmiths Press alongside D2O’s two non-overlapping Humanities & Social Sciences and STEAM collections that together comprise the Complete Collection. Participation ensures members not only expand open access collections at reduced cost but also receive perpetual access guarantees—a critical safeguard as open access models continue to evolve.
Since launching in 2021, MIT D2O’s Diamond OA model for digital monographs has opened 320 books, demonstrating the transformative impact of collective funding. Its sustainable fee structure, scaled to institution size, aligns with CRL/NERL’s mission to protect member budgets while turning collective investment into high-impact, long-term results. The model’s design ensures flexibility: if any single collection meets its funding threshold by the November 30, 2025, deadline, that collection will open; if all thresholds are met, all titles will open. Even if thresholds are not met, participating libraries still secure perpetual access to the collection(s) they supported and term access to related backfiles in addition to term access to an otherwise-gated backlist of approximately 2,500 titles and discounts on MIT Press Trade Books.
“Through CRL and NERL’s streamlined licensing and support for open access, members gain expanded access to open scholarship at favorable terms unattainable individually transforming member investment into sustainable, high-impact results,” said Lanette Garza, Director for Collections Acquisitions & Licensing at CRL. “The expansion of the D2O program to include titles from Duke University Press and Goldsmiths Press further strengthens the model and reflects CRL and NERL’s leadership in advancing access and stewardship of scholarship.”
“CRL has been an essential partner in the success of Direct to Open since its launch in 2021, and we are excited to continue working together to create a more open and equitable scholarly publishing ecosystem,” said Nick Lindsay, MIT Press’s Director of Journals and Open Access. “We are grateful for their leadership as we expand this model through new partnerships with Duke and Goldsmiths.”
“We are thrilled to have such a large and prestigious group of institutions through CRL and NERL supporting Direct to Open,” said Natasha De Bernardi, who heads the Library Relations and Sales team at Duke University Press. “Their role as the first domestic consortium to commit to Duke’s D2O collection helps us grow and nurture a healthy scholarly publishing community now and for the future.”
About CRL
The Center for Research Libraries is an international consortium of university, college, and independent research libraries collectively building, stewarding, and sharing a wealth of resource materials from all world regions to support inspired research and teaching. CRL’s deep and diverse collections are shaped by specialists at major U.S. and Canadian research universities, who work together to identify and preserve collections and content to ensure its long-term integrity and accessibility to researchers worldwide.
About NERL
NERL, a core licensing program of CRL, is a national leader in negotiated licensing. Consisting of a core group of 30 of the most research-intensive institutions in North America, NERL serves as an advocate for the collective power and influence of academic libraries and their parent institutions.
About the MIT Press
Established in 1962, the MIT Press is one of the largest and most distinguished university presses in the world and a leading publisher of books and journals at the intersection of science, technology, art, social science, and design. Direct to Open (D2O) harnesses collective action to support open access to excellent scholarship. The model is designed to open access to all new MIT Press scholarly monographs and edited collections (~80 titles per year) while providing participating libraries with access to backlist archives (~2,500 titles) and ensuring long-term sustainability for high-quality scholarship.
About Duke University Press
Duke University Press has been publishing award-winning scholarship that advances the frontiers of knowledge for nearly a century. As a leading nonprofit publisher of scholarly books and journals, Duke University Press centers marginalized communities and elevates underrepresented and new voices in disciplines ranging from art to gender studies to culture to religious studies. In 2026–2028, they will offer a collection of 20 frontlist humanities and social sciences titles via Direct to Open and exclusive access to a backlist collection of 250 titles.
About Goldsmiths Press
Founded in 2016, Goldsmiths Press aims to revive and regenerate the traditions and values of university press publishing through the innovative use of print and digital media. Their publishing program cuts across disciplinary boundaries and blurs the distinctions between theory, practice, fiction, and non-fiction. Goldsmiths Press is committed to sustainable, non-commercial open access, and has been actively engaged in a range of experiments with business models in the quest for a robust, inclusive open access landscape. In 2026–2028, they will offer a collection of four frontlist titles via Direct to Open.