In 2018 we published an open licensing primer for early literacy publishers on open licensing, with a brief section for authors and illustrators. So much has changed since then that we decided to take a fresh look at the issues and challenges, this time giving full attention to content creators, such as publishers, authors, illustrators, and teacher, all of whom have a stake in producing high quality and cost effective materials for education. We also include lessons learned from the COVID-19 lockdowns, technology challenges that still impede access to digital content, and the tradeoffs between digital access and print.
In addition, this expanded edition is intended for use by governments, funders, NGOs, and others that commission children’s content and plan to use open licensing to do so. These organizations are as important as the content creators for whom we wrote the first edition of this primer. Both they and the content creation sector should understand the licensing and economic issues involved so that budgeting and funding align with a system of fair compensation for content creators and producers. Our work in writing and producing this updated primer is based on both past and new research.
