LPC Blog

Sonya Betz Receives the 2026 LPC Award for Exemplary Service

The LPC Award for Exemplary Service recognizes substantial contributions by an LPC community member to advancing the mission, vision, and values of the Library Publishing Coalition. This year we had a particularly impressive and competitive pool of nominations, reflecting the strength of contributions of our membership.

On behalf of the LPC Board, we are delighted to announce that the recipient of the 2026 award is Sonya Betz, for her work as a connector, advocate, and community builder. In particular, the nominators and LPC Board noted the significance of Sonya’s impact in growing the Canadian library publishing community presence in LPC and the development of the Canadian Association of Research Libraries’ Library Publishing Community Engagement Team (LPCET). In the latter case, her work helped ensure strong connections between LPC and LPCET, including a dedicated seat on LPCET for an LPC member institution. Sonya additionally served on the LPC Board from 2023-26, including service as its Secretary and unseen key roles in shaping programs such as the Library Publishing Creates campaign. 

A statement from Sonya:

I am deeply honoured to be selected for the LPC’s Exemplary Service Award. This community has been such an important part of my professional journey in library publishing, and I’ve been so supported, uplifted and inspired by all of you! It was such a pleasure serving on the Board, and LPC’s openness to exploring creative solutions to engaging with the Canadian community of library publishers, and unwavering support in moving forward, were foundational to the creation of the LPCET. I feel so fortunate to be one small part of this amazing organization, and really proud of what we are accomplishing together.

Sonya will receive a complimentary registration to the 2027 Library Publishing Forum and a $500 honorarium. 

LPC Welcomes a New Strategic Affiliate: OLH

The Library Publishing Coalition is delighted to welcome the Open Library of Humanities (OLH) as a new Strategic Affiliate! OLH has shared the following statement:

The Open Library of Humanities is an award-winning, academic-led publisher of diamond open access journals based at Birkbeck, University of London. With initial funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and subsequent support from Arcadia, a charitable fund, the OLH covers its costs by payments from an international library consortium rather than any author fee. This funding mechanism enables equitable open access in the humanities disciplines, with charges neither to readers nor authors.

Joining LPC’s Strategic Affiliates Program reflects their commitment to working collaboratively across the open scholarly communications ecosystem and to continuing to strengthen relationships between libraries, publishers, infrastructure providers and other organisations working toward a more open and equitable future for scholarly publishing.

Strategic affiliates are peer membership associations who have a focal area in scholarly communications and substantial engagement with libraries, publishers, or both. See our list of strategic affiliates or learn more about the program.

LPC Releases 2025–2026 Annual Report

The Library Publishing Coalition is pleased to announce the release of its 2025–2026 Annual Report.

In addition to outlining LPC’s finances, membership, and ongoing inclusion efforts, the Annual Report highlights the release of several new resources, including: 

• the Library Publishing Creates advocacy website (including Showcase Week content), 
• new Quick Guides to Digital Preservation for Library Publishers, 
• an AI Editorial Policy Guide, and
• Powered by People: Staffing and Capacity in Library Publishing Programs (a report from our 2024-26 Staffing Survey Task Force

This year’s Annual Report also includes an illustrated guide to LPC’s extended network, including strategic affiliates, joint projects, and meta communities!

We encourage community members to share this report with colleagues and administrators who may be interested in getting involved or in understanding what membership dues make possible. 

Kudos to Jessica Kirschner

The Kudos program recognizes impactful work done by community members on behalf of the Library Publishing Coalition community.

Jessica has led the way to standing up a robust Discord server to make sure everyone has an opportunity to engage with the Forum, whether they are in Seattle or tuning in from afar. Her expertise and attention to detail will ensure an inclusive and professional virtual complement to the main conference, and will offer a template to build on in future years!

A quote from Jessica:

“The LPC/library publishing community is one of my favorites, and I loved the opportunity to help increase opportunities for engagement at LPF with both the sessions and community. I know online engagement is going through a period of change, and I hope the Discord was a welcome opportunity for connections and backchanneling during the conference. Big shout out to my other wonderful members of the RETF for all the community and collaboration over the past year!”

This Kudos was submitted by Jessica’s colleagues on the Remote Engagement Task Force.

Kudos to the 2025-2026 Curriculum Editorial Board

The Kudos program recognizes impactful work done by community members on behalf of the Library Publishing Coalition community.

This year, for the first time in the group’s history, the Curriculum Editorial Board (Johanna Meetz, Joshua Neds-Fox, Chelcie Rowell, John Warren, and Rebecca Wojturska) recruited a new group of authors to create updated content for the curriculum. The editorial board scoped out the necessary revisions and new content, created templates and guidance, recruited authors, and supported them through the writing and editing process. The new Policy units won’t be published until next program year, but I wanted to acknowledge the stellar work done by the outgoing cohort of editorial board members in making this work happen. Kudos!

A quote from the Curriculum Editorial Board:

“Thank you for this honor! The updated policy module is the culmination of many years of work from this Board, from previous Board members, many of whom have served two terms, and our former Editor in Chief, Cheryl Ball. We are also grateful to LPC for the funding they allocated to pay the authors for their work, and the authors for their contributions.”

This Kudos was submitted by Melanie Schlosser.