At a global level, the Open Access (OA) movement is currently in state of transition as it seeks to maximize the openness of data, research outputs and information financed with public funds; for this, various actors are required to develop and implement collaborative strategies. IFLA’s recently released “10 years of the IFLA open access statement: a call to action” identifies new essential areas for that action; one of them is to lead by example through collaboration with various actors in the world of Open Access.

IFLA’s Serials & Other Continuing Resources (SCORE) Standing Committee – which aims to analyse challenges and opportunities of scholarly communication – and the Open Access Working Party (OAWP) – whose charge is to reinforce IFLA’s open access actions and strategies – are, among other initiatives, collaborating strategically in the development of an Open Access Terms Vocabulary.

The aim of this Vocabulary is be a cooperative instrument that shares a set of official useful terms which are common when carrying out and implementing open access actions. The structure of the Vocabulary is arranged by official concepts, with description of those concepts and bibliographical references. A significant aspect of the Vocabulary is that it is being created in all seven official languages ​​of IFLA, in order to promote inclusiveness at local, regional and global levels.

The mission of the Vocabulary is to be a useful reference instrument to support the development of inclusive open access actions and products at a global level, such as Open Science Projects and Sustainable Development Objectives. At its core, development of the Vocabulary helps demonstrate that libraries have an important role as actors building and supporting the necessary infrastructure for the continued growth and development of open access activity.