Forum News

February 1, 2024

2024 Library Publishing Forum registration and updates

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Registration for the 2024 Library Publishing Forum is now open! This year’s Forum will be held on May 15-16 at McNamara Alumni Center at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. More information about registration, including rates and refund policies, can be found on the Registration & Travel Information page.

We have also begun adding travel information, including information about hotels and transportation options in Minneapolis.

And we are very excited to announce a Forum affiliated event: PKP will be hosting a Sprint and Pre-Conference Event on Monday, May 13 and Tuesday, May 14, to be held at the University of Minnesota Libraries, Wilson Library. PKP Sprints are interactive events where our community works together to improve our open-source software. This is the first PKP Sprint in North America since 2019 and not to be missed!

A full-day sprint is planned for Monday, followed by a half-day pre-conference on Tuesday.

To learn more about the PKP Sprint and Pre-Conference Event, please see the Save the Date announcement.

 


January 31, 2024

Full COVID Policy for the 2024 Library Publishing Forum

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Goal

LPC’s goal for the 2024 Library Publishing Forum is to encourage the safest possible in-person conference environment through careful planning and mutual care. 

Although public concern has waned, COVID-19 is still a serious health risk. Even otherwise healthy individuals are at risk for complications and for long COVID, and those risks increase with repeated infections. For individuals with weakened immune systems or other vulnerabilities, the risks are heightened significantly.

We acknowledge that an in-person event will inevitably carry a higher level of risk than a virtual one, and that even the most careful precautions may not reduce the risk enough for some community members to attend safely. For that and other reasons, we will continue to alternate in-person events with fully virtual ones.  

Planning

Our planning team is working to create the safest possible conference environment through attention to the following areas: 

Ventilation and air filtration

McNamara Alumni Center was built to meet the codes that prevailed at that time. The original design of the system dictates maximum MERV capabilities, which currently is use of a MERV 13 air filter. Air changes depend on the number of people and the pressure in the building. Spring and fall typically have the highest percentage of outside air in comparison to the coldest or hottest days of the year that the minimum air requirements were designed for.

Spaces within the venue

Because we are planning for a lower number of attendees than the space typically accommodates, we can have fewer tables and ask to have them spread out. Boxed lunches will be provided on both days, so attendees can choose to take their lunch elsewhere. There are about 12-15 small tables located outside the Alumni Center on a first-come first-served basis. Because meals will take place in the same location as the main conference session, risk of transmission will be heightened at sessions immediately following meal and snack times 

Provision of masks and tests

We will provide masks and rapid COVID self-tests for all attendees.

Reliable information and clear communication

We encourage attendees and potential attendees to reach out to us with questions and concerns by emailing contact@librarypublishing.org

Mutual care

Mutual care will help provide a safer conference environment. Below, we have laid out a number of strategies for mutual care and we encourage attendees to utilize as many of them as possible. We aren’t mandating particular strategies across the board, because there will be community members for whom any particular intervention isn’t possible (e.g., individuals who cannot be vaccinated or who cannot wear a mask for an extended period of time). However, attendees are encouraged to do as many of these things as they are able and to do their best to care for their fellow conference-goers.  Individuals are expected to isolate from other attendees if they are sick.

Vaccination

We will strongly encourage all attendees to receive up-to-date vaccines against COVID at least two weeks prior to the event. According to the CDC (at the time this policy was written), you’re up to date on your COVID vaccine if you received an updated vaccine after September 12, 2023. 

Masking

We strongly encourage attendees to wear masks whenever possible. We will make medical-grade masks (KN95 or similar) available throughout the event, and we encourage all attendees who are able to wear them whenever they aren’t eating, drinking, or presenting. 

The venue is part of the UMN campus, and it will include staff, attendees of other events, and potentially members of the public who may or may not be masked.

Testing

Although rapid COVID self-tests are not currently a reliable indicator of whether someone is infected (because of the prevalence of false negative results), they are a fairly reliable indicator of whether an individual is contagious on the day they take the test.(1) We will make tests available (one per attendee per day of the conference) and encourage all attendees to test each morning before coming to the venue. Further information will be posted and/or sent to attendees when available.

Isolating

Individuals who test positive or who are experiencing any moderate or severe symptoms of COVID are expected to isolate from other attendees. This means not attending conference sessions in person, and not gathering for social events with other attendees during the conference. 

Policy updates

This policy was designed based on conditions during early 2024. We are posting it in advance of the conference so that attendees can make an informed decision about their attendance, and we won’t make changes to it lightly. However, this policy is subject to change based on national trends and/or in accordance with CDC updates to guidelines and regulations. We will notify attendees of any changes as soon as possible. 

Contact

Questions about this policy? Please email contact@librarypublishing.org

 

(1)  Lopera TJ, Alzate-Ángel JC, Díaz FJ, Rugeles MT, Aguilar-Jiménez W. The Usefulness of Antigen Testing in Predicting Contagiousness in COVID-19. Microbiol Spectr. 2022 Apr 27;10(2):e0196221. doi: 10.1128/spectrum.01962-21. Epub 2022 Mar 29. PMID: 35348350; PMCID: PMC9045251. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35348350/ 


November 9, 2023

Call for Applications for the 2024 Library Publishing Forum Scholarships

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The Library Publishing Coalition is offering scholarships to offset travel costs for first-time Forum attendees from the United States and Canada, with a focus on individuals who will bring new and diverse perspectives to the community. There are two scholarships available, each of which will cover up to $2,000 USD in travel-related expenses, including airfare, hotel, and meals. Scholarship awardees will have Forum registration fees waived and will be paired with a community mentor to help introduce them to the conference and the community. For awardees from non-member institutions, the award includes guest access to the LPC community for the year following the in-person Forum. This would include access to the listserv and service opportunities, and the opportunity to participate in the peer mentorship program. All recipients will also receive a waived registration to the virtual Forum planned for May 2025. 

Eligibility

This round of the scholarship program will only be open to applicants from the United States and Canada. Applications will be accepted from individuals at both Library Publishing Coalition member and non-member institutions. Anyone who has not attended a previous in-person Library Publishing Forum is eligible to apply. (Anyone who has -only- attended the Library Publishing Forum virtually is encouraged to apply for this scholarship for travel funding to the 2024 in-person Forum.)

Ideal applicants will be new to their librarianship career (first 3–5 years), or new to the field of library publishing. Applicants who identify as members of a group (or groups) underrepresented among library and publishing practitioners will be given preference. These groups include – but are not limited to – members of a racial/ethnic minority, first-generation college graduates, immigrants and refugees, persons with a disability, and LGBTQIA+ individuals. Applications from people who could contribute to the diversity of perspectives at the Forum in other ways are also warmly welcomed.

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October 19, 2023

2024 Library Publishing Forum Call For Proposals

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The Library Publishing Forum is an annual conference bringing together representatives from libraries engaged in or considering publishing initiatives to define and address major questions and challenges; to identify and document collaborative opportunities; and to strengthen and promote this community of practice. The Forum includes representatives from a broad, international spectrum of academic library backgrounds, as well as groups that collaborate with libraries to publish scholarly works, including publishing vendors, university presses, and scholars. The Forum is sponsored by the Library Publishing Coalition, but you do not need to be a member of the LPC to attend.

The Library Publishing Coalition (LPC) is now accepting proposals for the 2024 Library Publishing Forum to be held at the McNamara Alumni Center at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, MN on May 15 and 16, 2024! Proposals may address any topic of interest to the library publishing community. The proposal deadline is November 20, 2023.

Note: The deadline for submitting proposals has been extended to December 15, 2023.

Proposal submissions for the Forum are welcome from LPC members and nonmembers, including library employees, university press employees, scholars, students, and other scholarly communication and publishing professionals. We welcome proposals from first-time presenters, representatives of small and emerging publishing programs, and employees of non-member institutions.

We are committed to expanding the diversity of perspectives we hear from at the Library Publishing Forum. Working towards some of the “Continuing Initiatives” from the LPC Roadmap for Anti-Racist Practice, we ask all proposals to explicitly address how they are inclusive of multiple perspectives, address DEI, or incorporate anti-racist and anti-oppressive approaches. Presentations about specific communities should include members of that community in their speaker list, and for sessions with multiple speakers, we seek to avoid all-white and all-male panels.

Learn more about session formats and submitting on the Forum program web page.

Submit a proposal

LPC Program Committee

Elizabeth Bedford, University of Washington (2023–2024 co-chair)
Jennifer Coronado, Butler University (PALNI) (2023–2024 co-chair)
Jason Boczar, University of South Florida
Corinne Guimont, Virginia Tech
Loftan Hooker, Virginia Commonwealth University
Alexandra Marcaccio, University of Guelph
Emma Molls, University of Minnesota (host liaison)
Melanie Schlosser, Library Publishing Coalition


June 16, 2023

Report on Library Publishing Forum 2023 Demographic Survey

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The development and use of this survey was based on the recommendations found in the Library Publishing Coalition’s (LPC) Roadmap for Anti-Racist Practice. This is a charge carried out by the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee. The 2023 survey was made available to Library Publishing Forum (LPF) attendees in order to understand who attends the Forum and to help ensure we are building DEI into existing structures, registration forms, list of speakers, and improving workflows or resources. Moreover, this survey helps us make concrete improvements to the Forum and track demographic changes over time.

Notes

As all questions were optional, not all questions were answered. Therefore, numbers/counts do not always add up. There were minor changes to the survey this year in an attempt to be less restrictive to answer options. Rather than forcing attendees to select one of the options given to them, instead, some questions just provided an open response option. This also gave an opportunity for the respondent to fill in an answer that may not have been listed and to optionally identify as they saw fit. The respondent information includes both LPF attendees and presenters.

Summary of responses and comparisons

The 2023 LPF had 267 registered attendees, while 2022 had 330 registered attendees (246 were virtual while 84 were in-person). 

We received 86 responses to the demographic survey from 2023 LPF attendees, which is roughly the same as the previous year (83 in 2022). The number of responses two years ago was 166 in 2021. The response rate in 2023 was 32%, compared to 28-30% in 2022 (a virtual/in-person combination), and 36% in 2021.

In 2023, most respondents fell into the 30-39 and 40-49 age ranges (28 people in each range), however, there was representation across all 20-60+ ranges. In comparison the majority of 2022 attendees were in the 30-59 age range.

For the 2023 survey, the question framing for race and ethnicity changed. This year’s results show 14% of respondents identified as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), while 86% do not. In comparison, in 2022, 80% of respondents selected “White” as their racial/ethnic identifier.

Of the 85 responses related to gender, most respondents identified as a woman (80%). Other 2023 responses include identifying as a man, as using another term, or non-binary. Participants were also given an option to specify other terms in use and the option to provide further gender identity comments in the 2023 survey. A few additional terms or comments were provided.

Of the 52 responses related to having a disability, most respondents do not have a disability (63%). About 29% of respondents in 2023 identify as having a disability, compared to 17% in 2022.  Both 2022 and 2023 respondents had the open response options that enabled explanation or alternative answers. Chronic illness were additional answers, as well as some noting that having a disability and stating so are culturally difficult. For the 2023 survey, the question framing for this added another prompt specific to neurodivergence based on feedback from the 2022 survey. In 2023, there were 55 responses to the question on identifying as neurodivergent. About 24% identify as neurodivergent, while 71% do not. There were also a few who might consider or do not know if they are neurodivergent. In 2022, only one respondent provided a neurodivergent identifier.

 In 2023, employment status of respondents had a majority of full-time employment (92%), compared to 95% in 2022. Other statuses included full-time and student, part-time, student, part-time and student, and full-time and part-time combination. These other statuses were less in number in 2022 and included a retired status.

 New to the 2023 survey was the open response question about any other identities. Less than 10 responses included the following: Queer, Bisexual, Immigrant, Child of immigrants, and works in North American but not from North America.

Final Comments

The 2023 LPF was entirely virtual, while the 2022 LPF was both in-person and virtual. Moving forward, virtual and in-person years will alternate. This aspect will need to be considered when evaluating demographic surveys in future years and the comparisons across years.

The Library Publishing Coalition’s DEI Committee members are incredibly appreciative of the many LPF participants who took the demographic survey during this year’s Forum. 

We welcome LPF participants and LPC members to contact us at inclusion@librarypublishing.org if you have additional resources or feedback you would like to share to help us improve our work.


March 29, 2023

2023 Library Publishing Forum Updates: Registration, Program, Keynotes, and Social Events

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The Library Publishing Forum (May 8–11, 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. ETD) is virtual this year! Here are the latest updates on registration, program, and keynotes.

Registration

Register now! The registration fee is a super affordable $25 USD for the whole Forum. However, we do not want cost to be a barrier to participation for anyone, so a waived-fee ticket option is also available for those who need it.

Program

The preliminary program for the Forum is available on our website, and it looks great! Full session descriptions are linked on the website and will also be available on our Sched site to registered attendees.

Note that this year there is one active session that has a capped attendance of 40. You can ‘purchase’ a free ticket when you register so don’t wait–this will fill up quickly! Please don’t claim a spot unless you plan to attend; if you do and find you can’t attend please email contact@librarypublishing.org to let us know so we can open the slot to someone else.

Keynotes

Opening and closing keynotes for the conference will focus on ethical issues in the library publishing environment. Our two speakers are

  • Dorothea Salo
  • Deborah Poff

Social Events

Days on Zoom can be long so this year we want to try ending each Forum day on a more casual and relaxing note. We’ve brainstormed some possible bits and pieces to include:

  • Recap/debrief on the day’s sessions
  • Birds-of-a-feather sessions
  • Speed networking => a series of three or four random 5-minute breakout room sessions
  • A Forum pets slideshow
  • On Thursday (the final day) more opportunities to provide feedback via discussion/Jamboard

We would like to hear what you want (or absolutely don’t want). Would you be willing to facilitate, i.e., keep the conversation moving, in a birds-of-a-feather session? What topic(s) would you like to discuss? Do you have [another] favorite Zoom social event? Let us know by filling out this brief form. Thank you!

About the Library Publishing Forum

The Library Publishing Forum is an annual conference bringing together representatives from libraries engaged in (or considering) publishing initiatives to define and address major questions and challenges; to identify and document collaborative opportunities; and to strengthen and promote this community of practice. The Forum includes representatives from a broad, international spectrum of academic library backgrounds, as well as groups that collaborate with libraries to publish scholarly works, including publishing vendors, university presses, and scholars. The Forum is sponsored by the Library Publishing Coalition, but you do not need to be a member of the LPC to attend.


November 14, 2022

2023 Library Publishing Forum Call For Proposals

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The Library Publishing Forum is an annual conference bringing together representatives from libraries engaged in or considering publishing initiatives to define and address major questions and challenges; to identify and document collaborative opportunities; and to strengthen and promote this community of practice. The Forum is sponsored by the Library Publishing Coalition, but you do not need to be a member of the LPC to attend. 

The Library Publishing Coalition (LPC) is now accepting proposals for the 2023 Library Publishing Forum! We are thrilled to offer a virtual forum during the week of May 8 to May 11Proposals may address any topic of interest to the library publishing community. The proposal deadline is December 16, 2022.

Proposal submissions are welcome from LPC members and nonmembers, including library employees, university press employees, scholars, students, and other scholarly communication and publishing professionals. Again, we welcome proposals from first-time presenters and representatives of small and emerging publishing programs.

We are committed to expanding the diversity of perspectives we hear from at the Library Publishing Forum. Working towards some of the “Continuing Initiatives” from the LPC Roadmap for Anti-Racist Practice, we ask all proposals to explicitly address how they are inclusive of multiple perspectives, address DEI, or incorporate anti-racist and anti-oppressive approaches. Presentations about specific communities should include members of that community in their speaker list, and for sessions with multiple speakers, we seek to avoid all-white and all-male panels. Everyone submitting a presentation will also have an opportunity to complete a brief, anonymous demographic survey so we can better understand who is submitting proposals to LPF.

Learn more and submit a proposal.

LPC Program Committee

  • Jason Boczar, University of South Florida (2022-2023 chair)
  • Elizabeth Bedford, University of Washington
  • Emily Carlisle-Johnston, University of Western Ontario
  • Jennifer Coronado, Butler University (PALNI)
  • Anna Liss Jacobsen, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
  • Lucinda Johnston, University of Alberta
  • Melanie Schlosser, Library Publishing Coalition


October 5, 2022

A Demographic Assessment of the 2022 Library Publishing Forum

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The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee of the Library Publishing Coalition (LPC) is excited to share with the wider LPC community a summary of responses to our 2022 Library Publishing Forum (LPF) Demographic Survey. This survey was based on the LPC Roadmap for Anti-Racist Practice (bit.ly/2022LPCRoadmap), which charged the DEI Committee to conduct a brief demographic assessment of the 2022 Forum. The survey was distributed to all Forum attendees and presenters to help the LPC create a baseline understanding of who attends the annual LPF. The goal of the survey was to create a demographic assessment of our annual forum to ensure we are building DEI into existing structures, registration forms, and list of speakers.

As a follow up to this work, we share the report-out details of this assessment. Please see the report and contact the DEI committee (inclusion@librarypublishing.org)  with any questions or concerns.

Thank you

DEI Committee


October 6, 2021

2022 Library Publishing Forum Call For Proposals

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The Library Publishing Forum is an annual conference bringing together representatives from libraries engaged in or considering publishing initiatives to define and address major questions and challenges; to identify and document collaborative opportunities; and to strengthen and promote this community of practice. The Forum is sponsored by the Library Publishing Coalition, but you do not need to be a member of the LPC to attend. 

The Library Publishing Coalition (LPC) is now accepting proposals for the 2022 Library Publishing Forum! After the success of our Virtual Forums in 2020 and 2021, we are thrilled to offer both in-person and online options this year, with a virtual preconference the week of May 16, 2022, followed by the in-person Library Publishing Forum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania May 25–26, 2022We invite proposals for both of these events, and warmly encourage proposals from first-time presenters and representatives of small and emerging publishing programs. Proposals may address any topic of interest to the library publishing community.

The proposal deadline has been extended to November 30, 2021.

Proposal submissions for both the virtual preconference and the in-person Forum are welcome from LPC members and nonmembers, including library employees, university press employees, scholars, students, and other scholarly communication and publishing professionals. We welcome proposals from first-time presenters and representatives of small and emerging publishing programs.

We are committed to expanding the diversity of perspectives we hear from at the Library Publishing Forum. Working towards some of the “Continuing Initiatives” from the LPC Roadmap for Anti-Racist Practice, this year we ask all proposals to explicitly address how they are inclusive of multiple perspectives, address DEI, or incorporate anti-racist and anti-oppressive approaches. We also encourage speakers to provide us with information about themselves that will assist us in identifying proposals that balance geography, identity, and representation, especially from marginalized groups. Presentations about specific communities should include members of that community in their speaker list, and for sessions with multiple speakers, we seek to avoid all-white and all-male panels. Everyone submitting a presentation will also have an opportunity to complete a brief, anonymous demographic survey so we can better understand who is submitting proposals to LPF.

Learn more and submit a proposal


July 21, 2021

Finding Connectedness, Inspiration, and Comfort at the 2021 Library Publishing Forum

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Last year’s Program Committee was tasked with planning the first born-virtual Library Publishing Forum. Recognizing that a week-long online event would just add to a year’s worth of Zoom fatigue and isolation, they made a concerted effort to add as much compassion and humanity to the experience as they possibly could. (And they managed to put together an outstanding program of presenters as well!)

The Committee and Educopia staff worked closely on the logistics to put together a thought-provoking and humane Forum experience on a limited budget; we think we were successful!  So we decided to pull back the curtain on how it was run to support other organizations that are interested in hosting their own online events on a shoestring. Because we had a lot to say, we published a series of daily posts, each with a different theme.

Happy reading!

More Than a Feeling: Using Design to Create a Shared Experience by Hannah Ballard

Blending the Synchronous with the Asynchronous: Strategies for Planning a Successful Conference Program by Justin Gonder

Stick-With-What-You-Have and Add Slowly: Configuring Technology for a Virtual Conference by Nancy Adams

You Always Need More People Than You Think: Staffing a Virtual Conference by Sonya Betz

Pets, Plants and New Partnerships: Creating Space for Social Activities at LPForum21 by Lauren Collister

Sponsorship, Streamlined: How We Shifted In-Person Benefits to a Virtual Space by Caitlin Perry

Virtual Conferencing on a Shoestring: Thoughts on the Budget by Melanie Schlosser

 

If you have any questions, you can email us at contact@librarypublishing.org and we’ll try to answer them.