Elections for the Library Publishing Coalition Board open today and will continue through Friday, March 4. Instructions for voting will be sent to each member institution’s voting representative. The candidates are:
Perry Collins, University of Florida
Biography
As a librarian within the Digital Partnerships and Strategies team at the University of Florida, I manage a range of publishing and policy initiatives focused on open education, copyright, and digital humanities. I co-lead the campus-wide Affordable UF initiative, which intersects with my role as an editor for LibraryPress@UF, an imprint of the Libraries and the university press. Since beginning this role in 2018, I have shaped both foundational aspects of this imprint such as our core mission and rights policies as well as individual projects across formats. In 2021, under my leadership LP@UF published our first full-length textbook, Impact of Materials on Society, and launched a new web hosting service for library staff to broaden access to publishing platforms. I am also a liaison on publishing and rights issues to the Digital Library of the Caribbean, a network of 77 members collaborating in a shared governance framework. Before transitioning to academic librarianship, I spent six years as a program officer in the Office of Digital Humanities at the National Endowment for the Humanities. In this role, I oversaw grants to over 50 projects and co-managed Humanities Open Book, a program funding open access to out-of-print press books.
Candidate Statement
I first attended the Library Publishing Forum five years ago, and I value this network as one that welcomes a range of experience, celebrates accomplishments, and shares lessons learned. This year, I chaired the LPC Directory Committee, which successfully published the 2022 edition and its underlying data. To increase the Directory’s impact, I am currently leading a task force of LPC community members to revise and simplify the survey while considering new areas of interest to the field. As a board member, my primary goal will be to steward and build upon what we have seen from LPC governance and staff over the past two years: a determination to foster community during an exceptionally difficult time. In a field where isolation is a challenge, many of us have benefited from community calls, peer mentorship, and shared resources, and I look forward to facilitating such work. My dual experience as both a librarian and former program officer also drives my interest in program sustainability, including funding models and community investment in ethical approaches to open access.
Statement of Anti-racist Practice
LPC has made important strides over the past several years toward acknowledging and taking concrete action against racism in our community practice, with projects such as the Ethical Framework for Library Publishing and Roadmap for Anti-Racist Practice as jumping off points for long-term discussion and iterative change. It is crucial that we acknowledge the labor it takes to sustain this work and its disproportionate impact on colleagues identifying as Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC); the LPC board can play a major role in better understanding how that labor is distributed and how all committees–not only the DEI Committee–are proactively contributing. In my work at UF, I strive to model better practices for editorial teams and authors; I recently co-authored a guide as one starting point to promoting DEI through the lens of topics such as peer review and citation. I approach frequent collaboration with international partners through a lens of cultural humility, recognizing my privilege and the deeply rooted impacts of colonialism while taking steps to build shared infrastructure and to acknowledge and compensate partners for their expertise.
Kevin Hawkins, University of North Texas
Biography
Kevin S. Hawkins is assistant dean for scholarly communication for the University of North Texas Libraries, where he leads the Libraries’ services in support of graduate student and faculty researchers. He also currently serves as PI for “Developing a Pilot Data Trust for Open Access Ebook Usage”, a multi-institutional grant funded initiative funded by the Mellon Foundation, and as a member of the board of trustees for this data trust. Prior to joining UNT in 2014, he was director of publishing operations for Michigan Publishing. Kevin has also worked as visiting metadata manager for the Digital Humanities Observatory, a project of the Royal Irish Academy. He has served on advisory boards for various efforts including Project MUSE, the Open Access Publishing Cooperative Study, and Editoria, served as the first president of the board of the Library Publishing Coalition, and contributed to the TEI, JATS, and EPUB standards for digital publishing.
Candidate Statement
Since serving on the first LPC Board (and as its first president), I have been pleased to see so many people step up to take their turn helping lead the organization. Besides my time on the Board, I have served on various LPC groups: overseeing the organization’s fiscal health on the Finance Committee, planning the 2018 preconference, reevaluating the membership structure, and contributing to the Diversity & Inclusion Task Force (predecessor to the DEI Committee).
I would bring to the Board not only the perspective of my broad experience in library publishing and longstanding connections with the AUPresses community but also a willingness to listen to the needs and desires of those newer to library publishing, for whom a community of practice like the LPC is so critical.
Statement of Anti-racist Practice
The UNT Libraries Scholarly Publishing Service welcomes and gives priority to projects that give voice to marginalized individuals and communities.
It is incumbent on people in positions of power to use that influence to provide more equitable opportunities for others, including speaking up as an act of anti-racism. In addition to having served on the LPC’s Diversity & Inclusion Task Force, I recently contributed to writing the University of North Texas Libraries’ new statement on inclusive metadata, which explains our efforts to remediate harmful language—one admittedly small step for the UNT Libraries to engage in anti-racist practice. UNT is a Hispanic Serving Institution, but the workforce of the UNT Libraries does not reflect the racial composition of the institution or even the local community. I am proud that the Libraries was given the Inclusive Excellence Award from UNT’s Division of Institutional Equity and Diversity in 2021 and has recently been engaging in efforts to create a diverse and inclusive workplace, such as through creating a Library Council for Diversity and Inclusion and improving our hiring practices.
Amanda Hurford, PALNI
Biography
Amanda Hurford is the Scholarly Communications Director for the Private Academic Library Network of Indiana (PALNI), a library consortium supporting 23 small private institutions. In her role at PALNI, she develops and supports scholarly communications initiatives, raising awareness of topics such as open access publishing and open educational resources. Under Amanda’s direction, the PALNI Press was formalized as a collaborative library publishing service, and the Publishing Services Admin Team was formed to support it.
Amanda also directs the PALSave affordable learning program, which includes the publication of open textbooks. She was instrumental in securing a half-million dollar grant from the Lilly Endowment, Inc. to fund PALSave and its publishing efforts. She also serves as one of the leaders for the IMLS-supported Hyku for Consortia project, a cross-consortial effort to offer low-cost institutional repository service to academic libraries in PALNI and beyond. In former positions, Amanda spent over a decade managing and growing digital cultural heritage repositories, enjoying the process of making previously undiscoverable content available to the world.
She has held leadership service roles on LPC’s Professional Development Committee, the Open Education Network Steering Committee, Indiana Digital Preservation (InDiPres, a MetaArchive member), the Indiana Memory DPLA Service Hub, and Academic Libraries of Indiana. Amanda holds a Master of Library Science with a specialization in Library Technology Management from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.
Candidate Statement
Being a part of the LPC community has been incredibly impactful on my growth as a library publisher. What started as an opportunity to learn soon evolved into active practitioner participation. I’ve presented at the Library Publishing Forum, written for the LPC Blog, chaired the Professional Development Committee, and I currently serve on the Preservation Task Force. I’ve truly enjoyed and found it fulfilling to connect with other library publishers, and to help grow initiatives such as the Peer Mentorship Program and Documentation Month.
I want to serve on the LPC Board to continue to connect with publishing colleagues, and to contribute to this amazing community. I love that LPC is value-focused and works to meet its members’ needs. At PALNI, I’ve had a chance to hone my community leadership skills. We listen to the voices of our community, explore ideas until a scoped need arises, and finally implement services as a result. I believe this collaborative ethos would translate well in the LPC leadership environment, as well as a few of my other strengths: service documentation, policy review, and landscape scanning.
Serving on the Board, my goal would be to contribute my skills and knowledge however they may benefit the community the most. Specifically, I would like to help ensure the stability and growth of the organization. As LPC’s strategic plan runs through 2023, I would enjoy reviewing current goals and helping to develop the next iteration of the LPC strategic plan.
Statement of Anti-racist Practice
I understand that anti-racism is not simply the absence of racist action or rhetoric — rather it is to actively oppose racism and to act consciously to promote equity. I continue to learn and seek opportunities to reflect on and apply anti-racist and anti-oppressive values. If given the opportunity to serve on the LPC Board, I’ll apply those same values in the work we do.
PALNI’s organizational values promote equal opportunities and a welcoming, inclusive, and respectful workplace which recognizes and embraces differences. As a collective, we do not discriminate on the basis of race or other characteristics in our operations. Similarly, in library publishing, PALNI Press promotes equal, equitable, and free access to research outputs, learning materials, and opportunities to disseminate scholarship from different voices and viewpoints. Diversity in our authors, peer-reviewers, and editorial groups are expressly encouraged. More can always be done to prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion; however these values statements provide a firm foundation to build upon.
Elizabeth Scarpelli, University of Cincinnati Press
Biography
Elizabeth Scarpelli was appointed founding director of the University of Cincinnati Press in 2017. At the Press I am director, acquiring editor and oversee operations and marketing.
Additionally I have developed a robust Cincinnati Library Publishing Services (CLIPS). In 2022, I will launch her third imprint Cincinnati Affordable Textbook Services (CATS). Scarpelli has 35 years’ experience in textbook, university press and library publishing at Prentice Hall, Cambridge University Press, Rutgers University Press and as director of publisher services managing the print-on-demand program. I have moderated and participated in numerous panels for AUPress, LPC and Klopotek. I have served on the Library Relations committee and Marketing Committees for AUPress, DE&I and Organizational Development Advisory Committees at University of Cincinnati Library and the Textbook Affordability and Rapid Response Committees at the University Level. I have also been a member of the Program Committee at LPC and AUPress. She is currently a Member-at-Large Board Member for Midwest Independent Publisher Association.
Candidate Statement
My goal as a board member is to help the LPC board and members to develop strategic alignment strategies with their host library and university administration. Publishing is often a siloed area within the university, and sometimes behind the times. Often it is not revenue generating which creates pressure for the university as well as the library. Understanding university goals and identifying how a library press can strategically align their efforts, and demonstrate it’s unique strengths to drive those university goals creates sustainability strategies. For Cincinnati, this means focusing on textbook affordability, faculty impact and creating a workflow and product that digital transformation of publishing.
Combining a university press with a library publisher and textbook services is unusual but has enabled me to be agile as a scholarly and build a press that can be sustainable and grow organically. I can easily pursue rigorous peer reviewed works while still focusing on university strengths and ways to close gaps on the impact of scholarship and faculty impact
My strengths include business development and networking and developing interdisciplinary interactive works. Building the University of Cincinnati Press has allowed me to work in an incubator testing business models, platforms, shared staff and communication strategies that build growth and awareness. Our press looks for ways to disrupt the publishing status quo in That means encouraging open access, if not the book, then resources and content that drives readers to a commercially sold book and expands author opportunity. As a new publisher, it was critical for the University of Cincinnati to establish ways it could bring innovation to an author experience and I have achieved that by using open access platforms to stretch the boundaries and reach of traditional publishing. I discard the assumption that a book is a static snap shot in time, and instead look for ways to keep it relevant and fresh for readers through Manifold, OJS and short works that are dynamic and interactive.
I want to serve on the board to work across organizations in a leadership position and bring this model and variations of this model to other existing and new library publishers and university presses. Having built a hybrid press, I understand the strengths and weaknesses, benefits and challenges that come with a multi-mission publisher. The benefits far outweigh the challenges and I believe university publishers can strengthen their position and relevance within the university by opening dialogues and breaking down silos.
Statement of Anti-racist Practice
As a publisher of social justice books, I have established practices and workflows recently that allow our books to identify bias language and bias and outdated content. I encourage diversity in our staff, most of which currently comes through our student workers. I am proud that we have 7 student workers, most of which identify as someone from a diverse or minority background. We strongly encourage neurodivergent students, BIPOC, LGBQT and students with disabilities to apply as well as students who are financially disadvantaged in order to open our eyes to different situations, and provide an inclusive workforce and build bridges
My faculty board is also diverse and provides an additional rigorous review of projects to ensure anti-racist and inclusive content and perspectives while permitting academic freedom..
I am learning as I go, with how to increase diversity and support anti-racist practice and anti-oppressive practice. Our social justice list does not simply focus on black studies and race relations. It features works on all disparities from education to disabilities; urban planning to resources. We have a diverse group of authors. Recently through conversations with other publishers and deeper discussions with authors, we have begun to increase the number of peer reviewers from diverse groups and freelance copyeditors, sensitivity readers, designers and typesetters also representing diverse groups. This is an important part of our new strategy to ensure that the individuals working on the book truly understand the content as well as the perspective of the content. I am increasingly passionate about ensuring that the voices working on the books we publish be sensitive to and supportive of anti-racist and anti-oppressive behavior and intellect.
Janet Swatscheno, University of Illinois Chicago
Biography
Janet Swatscheno is the Digital Publishing Librarian and Co-Director of the Digital Humanities Initiative at the University of Illinois Chicago. In her role at UIC, she supports a wide range of scholarly communication initiatives including Journals@UIC, an open access scholarly journal publishing program, and the UIC Open Textbook Faculty Incentive Program. She also runs the day-to-day operations of the University’s institutional repository and Domain of One’s Own initiative.
As Co-Director of the Digital Humanities Initiative, Janet participates in organizing local digital humanities workshops and conferences to skill up students and faculty in digital humanities methods. In this role, she also consults on digital humanities projects throughout the university.
She has been an active member of the Library Publishing Coalition since 2016, presenting at the Library Publishing Forum, contributing to the Library Publishing Curriculum, and serving on task forces and committees. She has held leadership service roles for the Library Publishing Coalition, previously chairing the Directory Committee. She is also active in statewide committees related to open education. She co-chaired a statewide committee on Open Educational Resources for the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois.
Candidate Statement
The Library Publishing Coalition has been instrumental to my growth as a library publisher. In my first library publishing related position, I had very little experience and I relied heavily on the resources provided by the Library Publishing Coalition along with the generous and supportive community to build my skills. I have found that this community is one of the most welcoming and well-organized, making it easy for new members to participate and meet new colleagues. Throughout my time as a library publishing professional, I have taken advantage of the many programs, webinars, and interest groups organized by the Library Publishing Coalition, including participating in the peer mentorship program for two years.
I would like to serve on the LPC Board to continue contributing to this community through service. It is both an exciting and uncertain time in scholarly communication and I believe that organizations like the Library Publishing Coalition are vital for preparing library professionals for the future. I also believe organizations like LPC have a role in reshaping how libraries meet the needs of diverse faculty, staff, and students through innovative and more equitable approaches to scholarly communication.
Statement of Anti-racist Practice
I acknowledge that racism is a societal problem that requires continuous education. I also acknowledge that racism is deeply embedded in academia and specifically academic libraries and scholarly communication. I think it is important to examine these structures closely, using an anti-racist lens. On a personal level, I work to understand my own privilege as a cis-gender, heterosexual woman from a middle-class background. I am committed to learning more about these issues and listening to the concerns of BIPOC faculty, students, and colleagues. In my career, I have worked on various projects that sought to amplify BIPOC voices, including the Publishing Without Walls Initiative from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. On an organizational level, I think it is vital for universities, libraries, and professional organizations to develop and organize initiatives that foster anti-racism. I will continue to advocate investment by these institutions in anti-racist initiatives.