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Following the open access publication of the first six books selected for the OpenEdition Books Select programme, our library partners explain why their institution is taking part in the project.Copyright: CC0, geraltDelphine Gallot, Common Documentation Service, Bordeaux-Montaigne University “Bordeaux-Montaigne University has been committed for several years now to supporting and implementing open science: through the implementation of open archive repositories, the vote of the board of directors in favour of the Jussieu Call, partnerships between university presses and the documentation service to support open access book publishing projects, and supportive subscriptions (Érudit, DOAJ). The evolution of subscription- or purchase-based business models of digital documentation towards a form of subsidization, of collective financial support, seems to us to be a sustainable model, one that aligns with our ideals of digital access.In addition, the university’s libraries have been buying OpenEdition Freemium books for several years now, convinced as we are that the business model is well adapted to the chain of dissemination for scientific research. The monograph is a very important medium for our researchers’ disciplines, and it seemed to us necessary to support the evolution of this crucial publication format towards digital and open access.It is therefore quite natural that we have taken part in [this] crowdfunding [operation] to release French-language research books on the OpenEdition platform.We are particularly pleased to be continuing our work to build quality collections in open access.”Daphne Celet, Head of the Digital Documentation Service, University of Strasbourg “The contribution of the Strasbourg University Library Service to this crowdfunding project reflects the university’s political will to support open science. For us it is a way to practically encourage an alternative and innovative model of scientific publication through the upstream financing of research works in the field of the humanities and social sciences, and what’s more in French, so as to enable open access dissemination. We are thus actively involved in the dynamics of the Jussieu Call for Open Science and Bibliodiversity, which has been signed by Unistra and in the National Plan for Open Science.”Louise Beraud-Le Franc, Head of th Periodicals and Digital Documentation Centre, University of La Rochelle “We decided to support the OpenEdition Books Select project because we want to contribute to the development of policies to release science content. This year we were able to modify our subscriptions in order to be able to contribute more widely to open access projects and, just as we joined the OpenEdition Journals ordering group, so we wanted to join OpenEdition Books Select too.”Hélène Coste, Deputy Director, University Library, Le Havre Normandie University “In recent years, Le Havre University Library has been a driving force for the promotion of open access within the university. With the official opening of a HAL portal for Normandy, the institution is now well on its way down this path. In 2018 the University Library wanted to subscribe to the OpenEdition Freemium offer to provide concrete support to open scientific publishing. Participating in the OpenEdition Books Select project is another way to support open access publishing in a collective, concrete and immediately visible way. And for a library that has the traditional mission to conserve books, what is more tempting than helping to release a few more?”Carolle Blais, Université du Québec à Montréal “We decided to support the project because our policy is to ‘support’ open access.”Claire Nguyen, Head of Documentary Policy, Paris-Dauphine University “Our institution has decided to support this project in favour of open access and bibliodiversity (our institution has signed the Jussieu Call), in the knowledge that the released books are of interest to our audiences on the margins.”Marie-Sophie Bercegeay, Digital Resources Cell, KBR -  Royal Library of Belgium  (Belgium)“KBR (Royal Library of Belgium) has been committed to open access since 2016 and financially supports various initiatives in the field of the humanities and social sciences (Knowledge Unlatched, OpenEdition, etc.), to offer users worldwide permanent and free access to scientific publications. These projects are of paramount importance to our institution since they promote and support research, while being part of our mission as a national and scientific library, aligned with our objectives relating to EU recommendations on open access, and reflective of our willingness to support innovative models for greater bibliodiversity.”Geneviève Roche, Forum Interkulturelle Frankreichforschung (FIFF) – Rachreferate Romanistik und USA, University of Mainz (Germany) “Our answer is simple. As a matter of principle, the University of Mainz has set itself the goal of supporting open access publications and officially declared its commitment as early as 2012 (OA Policy: https://www.openaccess.uni-mainz.de/). Our particular support for OpenEdition (in this case, this OpenEdition Books Select bundle) is also linked to the fact that since 1991 the university library has maintained a special collection of French and Francophone studies, for which I am responsible (https://www.ub.uni-mainz.de/frankreichforschung – this homepage is currently being updated). I am also seeking to engage with digital and, as far as possible, with open access. One of my major motivations is to help developing French-speaking countries to enjoy free access to culture through this modest contribution.”