LPC Blog

The Library Publishing Coalition Blog is used to share news and updates about the LPC and the Library Publishing Forum, to draw attention to items of interest to the community, and to publish informal commentaries by LPC members and friends.

Documentation: we all know it’s important. It helps to preserve institutional memory, allows future you to get up to speed, and can be a useful resource to share with colleagues. Yet this important activity is often neglected for a variety of factors. This February the LPC Professional Development Committee is excited to announce the return of Documentation Month to kick-start our community documentation chops. For the third year, Documentation Month will provide resources, community support, and strategies to encourage library publishers to undertake this important work. Follow along in the LPC-l mailing list for event details and login information to our events.

Documentation toolkit

To support the community in creating documentation, members of LPC’s Professional Development Committee have created a Library Publishing Documentation Toolkit. It consists of four sections: Getting started with documentation, Planning a documentation day, Suggested documentation projects to tackle, and Sharing documentation beyond your institution. The toolkit is available in PDF and as a Google Doc.   

Ways to participate in Documentation Month

How can you participate in Documentation Month?

For everyone: 

  • Organize a local documentation day (see the toolkit for instructions). Share a photo or agenda from your event on Twitter with the #LPCDocMonth hashtag & join in on the fun. 
  • Create some documentation! The purpose of this event is to support LPC members in creating documentation about your publishing program, so if it inspires you to create even one piece of documentation, you’re participating!

For LPC members: 

  • Attend this month’s upcoming community calls and workshops
    • Friday, February 3rd ; 3-4pm – Documentation Study Hall #1 w/ Corinne Guimont and Cheryl Ball.
    • February 10th, 1-2pm Eastern, Documentation Month kick-off community call
    • Friday, February 10th; 3-4pm – Documentation Study Hall #2 w/ Corinne Guimont and Cheryl Ball.
    • Friday, February 17th; 3-4pm – Documentation Study Hall #3 w/ Corinne Guimont and Cheryl Ball.
    • Friday, February 24th; 3-4pm – Documentation Study Hall #4 w/ Corinne Guimont and Cheryl Ball.
    • February 27th, 1pm-4pm Eastern, Zoom drop-in Documentation Day sprint

Scheduling information and call-in details for these events will be sent out each week to the listserv. Please feel free to share widely within your institution, but these calls are open to LPC member libraries only, so please do not share outside the community. 

Happy documenting! 

From the Documentation Month planning group on behalf of the LPC Professional Development Committee