The Optimized Library: The Open Access Budget

How to balance cost, impact, and equity in open-access decisions

Posted on March 2, 2026 in Videos

“The Optimized Library: Solving the Puzzles of Modern Library Management” is a new video series from LibTech Insights, brought to you by Sam Suber, the Electronic Resources Coordinator at Moraine Valley Community College Library.

Over the past several months, Sam has offered practical tutorials for using Microsoft Excel’s Solver add-in to address many problems libraries face: filling in gaps in incomplete datasets, making smart and ethical budgeting decisions, and optimizing staffing resources. Sam’s approach to these topics balances optimization with ethics, setting the stage for librarians to make smart decisions that align with their values. In “The Optimized Library,” Sam will continue to dispense his timely advice in a new format, walking viewers through a variety of current problems libraries face and showing how simple tools can inform data- and value-driven decisions.

In this first installment, Sam takes up the issue of open access budgets. Expect to learn how librarians can, with Microsoft Excel Solver, balance cost, impact, and equity in their open-access publishing decisions.

For more background on Microsoft Excel Solver, refer to Sam’s post, “Maximizing Impact: Using Excel Solver for Optimal Library Budgeting.”

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