Open Licensing Made Plain: A primer on children’s book creation in the global South (2nd edition)

In 2018 NBA published an open licensing primer for early literacy publishers on open licensing, with a brief section for authors and illustrators. This edition looks at challenges and issues faced by content creators, such as publishers, authors, illustrators, and teachers, all of whom have a stake in producing high-quality and cost-effective materials for education. This primer includes 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, who were the target audience of 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.