Our customers

Libraries

Institutional libraries are the primary customers for the breadth of our published works. Institutional access to our publications drives the reach and impact of your article, chapter, or book.

Our dedicated Library Marketing team focuses on:

Understanding the global library market and supporting the community
Raising awareness of OUP’s products
Providing support for institutional sales teams

This marketing activity is targeted to librarians and the people making purchasing and subscription decisions at institutions. It is foundationally important in making sure your work is available to those academics who will find it most useful.

Our relationship with libraries is often long term and collaborative. Our flexible pricing and access models were developed in partnership with institutions, to suit their varied requirements and preferences. We also provide extensive onboarding and training to support our library customers and help make sure they and their patrons get the most out of all the works available to them, including yours.

Libraries are increasingly prioritizing digital formats

Libraries are responding to the shifting nature of academic research and are increasingly prioritizing digital formats.

While libraries had already been shifting to digital acquisition of books in the last decade, the Covid-19 pandemic acted as a catalyst towards an even greater shift to digital purchasing and delivery of books to support researchers off and on campus. Digital books are convenient for libraries because they are convenient for their patrons—the books can then be accessed remotely, and unlimited simultaneous access means patrons do not have to wait for a physical copy of the title they want to be available.

Our Library Marketing team has responded to the change, and now have a particular focus on selling collections of online books, hosted on our platforms including Oxford Academic.

Library recommendations and course adoptions

We encourage researchers to recommend your work to their librarian. You can do the same for your own work, if your institution does not have access to your digital book, chapter, or article.

Librarians consider the demand for research when making purchasing decisions. As library budgets have become tighter in recent years, librarians have embraced the wealth of data available providing evidence of the interest, reading habits, and engagement of their patrons. Our marketing helps to stoke this interest.

Individual customers

Print books: Bookshops

Our Marketing, Sales, and Product Data teams partner with book retailers and wholesalers to make the printed version of OUP books available around the world.

We work with all major online book retailers to ensure the widest possible availability and, in addition, customers can order hard copies of books direct from OUP via our website. Most of our books are included in Amazon’s ‘Look Inside’ programme, giving potential customers the chance to read a sample of your work before they buy it. We also have a print-on-demand (POD) programme with Amazon, to enable continued availability for some backlist books.

In traditional bookshops, shelf space is limited and competitive, and they favour titles with mainstream appeal. Many booksellers are increasingly cautious about stocking scholarly or more specialized titles, but most will order titles at a customer’s request.

Digital content

Our marketing teams drive the use of digital content. We encourage individuals interested in our digital content, including digital books and journal articles, to send a recommendation to their librarian when their institution does not already have access.

A small number of titles are available on personal subscriptions, and we also sell e-books through third-party retailers such as Kindle.

Related information

Find out more

Promotion and discoverability

Our marketing approach gives your work a strong platform for success.

Find out more

Read white papers for authors

Impact insights

Gain invaluable insights from OUP editors on the topics, methods, and formats that create deep engagement with digital research.

Read white papers for authors

Browse the blog

Publishing 101

Learn more about the world of academic publishing—from open access to peer review, accessibility to getting published—with our Publishing 101 series on the OUPblog.