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.

December 19, 2017

Announcing our new Publishers and Service Providers Program

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LPC Publishers & Service Providers

As the year draws to a close, we have one more big announcement: the official launch of LPC’s new Publishers and Service Providers Program! The Publishers and Service Providers Program is a multi-tier sponsorship program designed to provide opportunities for its participants to engage with the community of library publishers. To ensure that it is welcoming to a wide range of organizations, the program also includes a free tier consisting of inclusion in LPC’s Publishers and Service Providers list (coming in 2018).

While we have always relied on sponsors to support the Library Publishing Forum, we have not been able to provide opportunities for sponsors and community members to engage during the other 363 days of the year. The new program still includes Forum-only tiers, but it also provides opportunities for organizations who want to participate more fully in the LPC community. Year-round benefits include participation in LPC’s listserv, attendance at member-only events, and the opportunity to present a vendor webinar.

This new program is a companion to our Strategic Affiliates Program, which is focused on peer membership organizations. The Publishers and Service Providers Program is much broader, and is appropriate for a wide range of non- and for-profit organizations. Both programs are intended to help the LPC develop closer relationships with other organizations in our space, to raise the profile of library publishing, and to help our members make connections that will benefit their publishing programs.

Interested in participating? Just fill out this form to get the ball rolling!

Fellows Journal. Logo for the Library Publishing Coalition. Background image features bokeh lights in blues and greens.
December 14, 2017

Thinking about accessibility and sustainability in scholarly communication

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The Fellows Journal is a forum for the current Library Publishing Coalition fellows to share their experiences and raise topics for discussion within the community. Learn more about the Fellowship Program.

In addition to my duties as a scholarly communication librarian, one of my roles at the University of San Francisco is liaison to the Migration Studies program. It’s a relatively new program in a relatively new field, so search terms are still evolving. For example, one of the common roadblocks that students encounter is that research data is available under “refugees” rather than “migrants.” This search term confusion is easily remedied, but there are also problematic descriptors such as “illegal” and “undocumented”. One of the questions that came up this past year was, What do you call someone who has valid legal immigration status but who is deported or detained? (People in the class agreed “illegal” is unacceptable, and “undocumented” is inaccurate.) Since many of the students in the program have a personal stake in these issues, these conversations around naming are not taken lightly.

In addition to these discussions in the classroom, naming and authority are, of course, important to librarianship as well. More recently, I have been thinking about “accessibility” and “sustainability” as terms that are heavily used both in my work as a scholarly communications librarian and more broadly outside of my professional niche. 

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December 6, 2017

What library publishing looks like in 2017 – Excerpt from the Library Publishing Directory

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Cover image of the 2018 Library Publishing DirectoryIf you haven’t yet checked out the latest edition of the Library Publishing Directory and the new, searchable online platform, well…they’re pretty cool! See our previous post for the full announcement. While we are super excited about the online platform, the one thing it doesn’t have is the Directory‘s front and back matter, which is more interesting than you’d think.

Each year, the Directory‘s introduction includes a ‘state of the field’ based on that year’s data. It highlights trends and new developments in library publishing as reported by the programs that contribute their information. We wanted to share this year’s on the blog to make it easier to find and discuss. The following is an excerpt from this year’s Directory, written by Melanie Schlosser, Liz Hamilton, Joshua Neds-Fox, Tom Bielavitz, and Alexandra Hoff.

LIBRARY PUBLISHING LANDSCAPE 2018

Each year, the Directory Committee mines the Directory data set in order to highlight trends and unique aspects of library publishing. In our fifth year, the trends and tendencies pointed out in previous introductions have started to reveal themselves as enduring characteristics and essential features of the library publishing landscape. We believe this reflects both the growing data set and the maturing of the field itself. This introduction highlights that continuity (“The Song Remains the Same”) and draws out two of those essential features for consideration (“Openness” and “Publishing and Pedagogy”).

THE SONG REMAINS THE SAME

This year’s data is remarkably consistent with what we have seen in past Directories. Most of the numbers are very similar to last year or within range from previous years. Of the two areas where there are noticeable changes—services and digital preservation—one of them is in line with previously noted trends.

Partnerships

Partnerships remain important to library publishing programs, and individual faculty and campus departments are still our most common partners. We continue to see significant numbers of partnerships with graduate and undergraduate students, and the number of university press partnerships continues to rise slowly. The only substantial change from last year was a jump in partnerships with graduate students (from 72% last year to 77% this year).

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Promotional image for 2018 Library Publishing Directory
December 6, 2017

Announcing the 2018 Library Publishing Directory and a new online platform

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The Library Publishing Coalition is pleased to announce publication of the 2018 Library Publishing Directory, as well as the launch of a new, searchable online platform for the Directory data.

2018 Library Publishing Directory

This year’s Library Publishing Directory highlights the publishing activities of 125 academic and research libraries, and is openly available in PDF and EPUB format. The Directory illustrates the many ways in which libraries are actively transforming and advancing scholarly communications in partnership with scholars, students, university presses, and others.

New Online Platform for the Directory

We are also excited to share the Directory in a new format – a searchable online platform! As of launch, the new platform includes the data from the 2017 and 2018 Directories, with 2014 through 2016 coming soon. In addition to full-text searching, the new platform allows users to sort and limit by a number of factors, including location, publication types and formats, and software platforms used. We are delighted to provide this new functionality for the Directory’s rich data set, and we welcome feedback on it.

Publication of the 2018 Directory was overseen by the LPC’s Directory Committee:

  • Liz Hamilton, Northwestern University (2017-18 chair)
  • Joshua Neds-Fox, Wayne State University
  • Tom Bielavitz, Portland State University
  • Alexandra Hoff, Purdue University
  • Melanie Schlosser, Educopia Institute (ex officio)

The Directory is made possible by the generous donation of services from Purdue University Libraries and Bookmasters.