Friends: Please look up the website of 'Knowledge Unlatched.' It appears to be an excellent programme for some leading Indian institutions to join. Already close to 300 institutions (including Fudan University in China and two institutions in South Africa) have joined. The partnering publishers include several Universities. In any case all books are free to download by our researchers and students. But this kind of OA is made possible by the member institutions sharing the cost. More the members lower will be the cost to each of them. Librarians of key Indian academic and R&D institutions might wish to recommend joining this programme to their vice chancellors and directors. I spoke to two leaders of the OA movement and both of them felt that Indian institutions would benefit by joining the programme. Arun -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.