VOICES
Knowledge Infrastructures, Monographs and Why Open Access Must be Part of the Post Pandemic ‘New Normal’
By Dr. Frances Pinter, Executive Chair, Central European Press University
As a result of the global pandemic we are about to see some huge changes. Contractions of
higher education institutions. Will make the headlines. There will be redundancies amongst
faculty and with it, reductions in library budgets. How much, we don’t know yet, but it won’t
be evenly spread out. Parts of knowledge infrastructures will contract faster than others, a
few may expand, but there will definitely be a scrabble for resources and a chaotic
adjustment period. It is likely the Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) will suffer more than
STEM – at a time when we need more than ever to learn more about ourselves so we can
cope better with the global challenges that threaten the very existence of humankind.