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Purpose: The purpose of the study is to assess the university libraries in North East India regarding their initiatives towards open access movement and conceptualize a model for Open Access Initiatives (OAI). Approach, Design and Methodology: Surveyed and identified all the universities in the eight states of North East India. Covered 11 central, 5 state and 4 private universities to understand open access initiatives taken up by them in their respective libraries collecting data through a semi-structurally designed questionnaire. Using statistical techniques, data have been analyzed to draw empirical conclusions. Findings: The study have revealed various issues associated with the libraries regarding their automation status, digitization process, different motives towards OA, establishment of institutional repositories, challenges and many more. The need for having a model for OAI for all the libraries of the region has been felt. Came out with a proposed model for OAI having eight phases comprising mainly of rejuvenation of library system, digitization, digital archiving, OA publications, constitution of a committee, etc. However, acceptability of the model by the libraries of the region needs to be taken care of by the concerned universities. Originality/value: The study is first of its kind in the area of open access initiatives taken up in the region. Findings provide a new vista for the university libraries, which are added feature in the context of the stock of the existing knowledge in the field. The conceptualized OAI model is a new proposal the acceptability of which being rest with the universities concerned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]