Knowledge Unlatched is a global initiative that buys the publishing rights for books and journals from major publishing houses within the humanities and social sciences, to release them as open access. The initiative is financed by libraries globally, and since the books are unlatched, and thus do not need to be purchased, the costs approximately even out.

So far, around 450 titles have been released, and in 2018 additionally 370 books and 21 journals will be released. Libraries within the project select the books and it is then open for libraries and other organizations to contribute financially. Stockholm University Library has contributed economically to all released collections so far.

– We consider it important to support open access monograph projects also and have consequently been involved in Knowledge Unlatched since the beginning. It is therefore extra pleasant when this project publishes a monograph co-authored by a researcher at Stockholm University, says Wilhelm Widmark, Library Director at Stockholm University and member of the Library steering committee of Knowledge Unlatched.

New book

The triple bind of single-parents families by Rense Nieuwenhuis (Stockholm University) and Laurie C Maldonado is a study from more than 40 countries on how single parents face a triple bind of inadequate resources, employment and policies. The book covers many aspects, and reflects on social justice as well as how to improve the well-being of single parents and their children.

Dr. Rense Nieuwenhuis is an assistant professor at the Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI) of Stockholm University. His work addresses poverty, economic inequality, single parents, family policies, and the (EU) social investment perspective.

Dr. Laurie C. Maldonado is a scholar on single-parent families in the US and across countries. She is affiliated with LIS Cross-National Data Center and Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality at the Graduate Center, City University of New York.