Day/Time/Room
May 16, 2024 | 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. | Ski-U-Mah Room
Title: Strengthening Canadian Library Publishing Community Connections
Presenters:
- Sonya Betz (she/her), Head, Open Publishing and Digitization Services, University of Alberta Library
- Emily Carlisle-Johnston, Research and Scholarly Communication Librarian, Western Libraries
- Jeanette Hatherill, Principal Coordinator, Coalition Publica
Description: Library publishers play a vital role in the Canadian scholarly publishing landscape; more than 40 Canadian post-secondary institutions provide publishing or hosting services to over 800 scholarly and student publications that make up their communities. This publishing landscape is deeply non-commercial, multilingual and contributes to a vibrant, bibliodiverse national scholarly literature. While journal hosting and publishing are frequent topics in local, regional, and national conversations around scholarly communications, until recently, Canada’s library publishing practitioners have had no formal community organization to engage with issues that are uniquely relevant to them, and that represents them effectively to the national scholarly communications community.
However, change is afoot! Building on the recommendations of the Library Publishing Coalition’s Canadian Community Development Working Group (CCDWG), a number of exciting new developments are underway to establish the foundations of a strong and united library publishing community in Canada.
While journal hosting and publishing are frequent topics in local, regional, and national conversations around scholarly communications, until recently, Canada’s library publishing practitioners have had no formal community organization to engage with issues that are uniquely relevant to them, and that represents them effectively to the national scholarly communications community. Multiple important national stakeholders are involved in this work, including Coalition Publica and the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL).
This presentation will describe the progress we’ve made, and what we hope to achieve, including establishing a library publishing Community Engagement Team in partnership with CARL, developing a bilingual documentation hub with Coalition Publica, and negotiating for better Canadian representation in the LPC. As global efforts to foster Diamond Open Access publishing models gain traction, via projects like Coalition Publica, library publishers occupy a critical position in supporting non-commercial, scholar-led journals. We hope attendees will leave this presentation with a better understanding of how a national community might be structured and supported, and what progress can be made towards truly equitable publishing models when communities come together to work on common goals.