The Authors Alliance Partner Program, also known as A2P2, helps us support academic authors by fostering a close collaboration with academic libraries to develop quality resources, advocacy, and tools that support a more open and equitable information ecosystem. For many academic authors, their library is the first place they turn to for advice on publishing, copyright, and scholarly communications. Through the Partner Program, libraries are able to draw on Authors Alliance deep legal and publishing expertise to expand support for their authors. Libraries that are part of our Partner Program support Authors Alliance in the following:   

Publishing authoritative, open access guides to legal issues facing authors. Our popular series of legal guides has helped thousands of authors navigate fair use, open access publishing, publication contracts, permissions and more. In late 2023 we are publishing a new guide, “Writing About Real People,” addressing defamation, rights of publicity, and rights of privacy, with practical guidance for academic authors on issues such as working with archival materials and interacting with an IRB.

Offering workshops, book talks, and other programing that give authors an opportunity to better understand why information law matters for their work, and how they can take action to support good information policy. In 2023 our book talks alone (live and recorded) reached over 20,000 viewers, with talks covering topics such as how the prevailing copyright-internet regulatory system came to be (Jessica Litman, Digital Copyright); how emerging corporate structures leverage technology to mine data about individuals and researchers (Sarah Lamdan, Data Cartels); and pathways forward for open access and open data (Peter Baldwin, Athena Unbound).

Directly intervening with and on behalf of academic authors in support of fair use, the public domain, and access to knowledge. In the last year this included briefs on behalf of authors supporting controlled digital lending, transformative fair use, and free speech.We also spearheaded efforts before the US Copyright Office, for example, to maintain and expand DMCA exemptions for academic researchers engaged in text and data mining.

We view this program as an opportunity for true collaboration. We have in many instances been able to work with partners to bolster local outreach and trainings, give feedback on proposed policies or initiatives affecting authors, and in some cases offer consultations with individual authors where additional expertise is needed. In 2023, we were able to secure outside grant funding to allow us to travel to many Partner Program member campuses to offer in-person workshops, events, and other trainings, and we are actively working to secure funding to do the same in 2024.

Current Partner Program Members
We’re proud to include the following organizations among our current members:

Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Arcadia—a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin—for a 2018-20 grant to support this initiative. We’re also grateful to the pilot partners who helped us shape the original Partner Program, including our workshop in a box, webinar, and issue brief resources.