LPC News

July 17, 2025

Announcing the second edition of the Library Publishing Research Agenda

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The Library Publishing Coalition (LPC) is thrilled to announce the release of a revised second edition of the Library Publishing Research Agenda. This new edition reflects our continued commitment to supporting a vibrant, inclusive, and evidence-based library publishing ecosystem.

This second edition of the Library Publishing Research Agenda builds on the foundation laid by the original 2020 publication, continuing to explore critical areas where research is needed to inform and strengthen practice in the field of library publishing. It offers updated and expanded exploratory overviews of six key topics: Assessment, Labor, Accessibility, Non-traditional Research Outputs, Peer Review, and Partnerships. The document is divided into sections corresponding to each of these topics, each of which includes a contextual summary, refreshed or newly proposed research questions, and updated resources for further reading. This revised edition reflects new developments in the field and ongoing conversations within the community. It is intended to support current and future researchers, practitioners, and stakeholders committed to advancing knowledge and practice in library publishing. The Research Agenda was developed by LPC’s Research Committee with input from the LPC community.

How to use the Research Agenda

The Research Agenda is offered as a starting point for individuals interested in learning about and conducting research related to library publishing. It aligns with the LPC Research Committee’s mission to promote research that can provide an evidence base to inform best practices for library publishers. 

We encourage the members of the library publishing community to use this document in a variety of ways, including purposes aimed at both research and practice. The research questions in each section can be used to develop more expansive research projects that might investigate general trends in library publishing, or as a means of examining current practices and policies within one’s own institution. The listed relevant resources are also intended as a starting point for individuals interested in learning more about aspects of library publishing, even if they are not interested in conducting research in that area. 

Where to check it out

The Library Publishing Research Agenda can be accessed in PDF (generously hosted by Purdue University Libraries) and in HTML. As with all LPC publications, the Research Agenda is released under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, and we encourage others to share and adapt it as widely as possible. Questions and comments about this document can be emailed to contact@librarypublishing.org. 

The creators of the Library Publishing Research Agenda

Karen Bjork, Nina Collins, Matthew Goldberg, Matt Hunter, John Martin, John Morgenstern, Talia Perry, and Mai Yamamoto. Production: Maggie Rosenau (copyediting and design). Educopia Institute.

July 11, 2025

Second round of our platform accessibility investigation

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About these investigations: LPC has been taking an all-hands-on-deck approach to web accessibility for the last year. The updates to Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act – as well as similar regulations in other parts of the world – are aligned with our values as a community, but will take substantial effort to comply with for most library publishers. To support this work, LPC has teamed up with the Library Accessibility Alliance to provide a variety of professional development opportunities. Looking outward, we are also using our position as a community hub to investigate one of the elements of web accessibility that library publishers can’t control individually – publishing platforms. 

Round one: See our February 12 blog post for a description of our methods and the results of our first round of investigations, which included OJS, Pressbooks, and Janeway. After the blog post was published, we hosted a series of community calls – one for each platform – so LPC members could speak directly with platform developers and representatives about accessibility. 

Round two: This post is reporting out on our second round of platform outreach, in which we contacted DSpace, Omeka, Fulcrum, Manifold, and Digital Commons (again). 

The question set: We used the same set of questions as round one: 

Testing

  • What technical or legal conformance standard have you adopted for your product(s)?
  • How do you test for accessibility?
  • Do you test all areas of your platform (e.g. reader interface, author interface, editorial interface, admin interface) and your user-facing documentation (including online product documentation and help/support resources)? 

Development

  • Do you have a development roadmap for increasing accessibility? Can you share it? 
  • Do you have a process for collecting and responding to user reports of accessibility errors? Are those reports treated as bugs or feature requests?
  • Do you have a process for development contributors to submit fixes for accessibility issues? 

Content and customizations

  • How do you support/encourage users in creating accessible content? 
  • How do you support/encourage developers to maintain accessibility in local customizations? 

Documentation

  • Does your company have an internal digital accessibility policy (or equivalent) and public accessibility statement? If so, please provide the URL.
  • Do you have a VPAT or other accessibility information on your website? If so, provide a URL. If not, can you provide your latest Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) or Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR)?

Responses: We received full responses from DSpace, Omeka, and Fulcrum. Manifold asked to respond in the fall once they finish a round of development. Digital Commons continues to not get back to us. 

Results: The responses received from the three platforms were very similar to those provided by PKP, Pressbooks, and Janeway. A summary of previous platform responses can be found in this blog post.  A notable difference between the two groups is related to content and customizations. Currently, only Fulcrum provides resources to help users create accessible content (Omeka and DSpace indicated that they are exploring additional ways to encourage/support accessibility).

  • Accessibility information
  • All three platforms have publicly available accessibility information (DSpace, Omeka, Fulcrum). 
    • Fulcrum provides a public accessibility roadmap; DSpace incorporates accessibility features into the roadmap for major releases.
    • All platforms have publicly available VPATs (Voluntary Product Accessibility Templates): DSpace, Omeka, Fulcrum

We will share the full answers from each platform with the LPC community via email. 

Next steps: We will follow up with Manifold in the fall and will share their responses with the community. 

June 27, 2025

Kudos to the 2024-2025 LPC Program Committee!

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

This Kudos recognizes the 2024-2025 LPC Program Committee for their excellent work on the 2025 Library Publishing Forum.

Congratulations to the Program Committee for a very successful virtual Library Publishing Forum! The sessions were excellent, it was well-organized and welcoming, and attendees were super engaged. At a time when there are a LOT of demands on everyone’s attention, this conference managed to sustain participation across four days of programming, and to provide just enough social interaction for those who wanted it. Excellent work, Corinne, Liz, Jennifer, Loftan, Ryan, and Jessica!

This Kudos was submitted by Melanie Schlosser.

June 24, 2025

LPC adds its first consortial membership: Welcome VIVA!

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The Library Publishing Coalition is delighted to welcome VIVA as its first consortial membership. Consortial memberships streamline billing for groups of libraries in the consortium and pass along membership benefits to participating institutions. VIVA will act as the consortial central office for the following participating institutions: George Mason University, James Madison University, Sweet Briar College, University of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, Virginia Tech, and William and Mary.

A statement from VIVA:

VIVA is the consortium of academic libraries in Virginia representing 70 institutions of higher education. Members include 39 public colleges and universities, 30 independent private non-profit institutions, and the Library of Virginia. Since 1994, VIVA has worked to build an equitable, accessible, and robust infrastructure of library resources and services for Virginia higher education students and faculty. VIVA Publishing is an Open and Affordable initiative providing centralized publishing support for VIVA Open Grant recipients and support for our member institution’s library publishing programs. For more information, please visit www.vivalib.org.

VIVA is excited to transition to a consortial membership with LPC, which provides a more affordable and inclusive avenue for our members and the central office to participate in the vibrant LPC community!

LPC is grateful to VIVA for their input as we created a consortial membership option that works for our community, and for stress-testing the onboarding process as our first consortial member. Supporting consortial publishing efforts is a strategic priority for LPC, and we hope that this new membership option will make participation in the LPC community feasible for more consortia and more consortial member institutions.

June 24, 2025

An update on University-Based Publishing Futures work

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We know it’s been quiet on the UBPF front since our launch webinar last fall, but there’s been a lot happening behind the scenes. Here’s a quick round-up of what we’ve been up to AND a save-the-date for an in-person gathering in 2026! 

Statement signatories: We have added 26 new signatories to the community statement! Those 24 join the original three communities that kicked off this work – the Association of University Presses, the Library Publishing Coalition, and the Association of Research Libraries. If your organization is not yet a signatory, you can still become one by filling out the Organizational Support Form.

Knowledge Sharing Working Group: This group is working on a brief survey to identify existing resources and professional development needs. Keep your eyes open for that this summer!

Advocacy Working Group: This group has completed a landscape scan and is developing a strategic communications campaign to support university-based publishers in communicating the value of publishing in a university setting to critical audiences. 

Ad-hoc signatories working group: There is an option on the Organizational Support Form to indicate that your organization would like to help support the community’s work beyond becoming a signatory. We invited representatives from the organizations that checked that box to a meeting in January where we reviewed the work happening and the gaps that still needed filling. The conversation was so productive that the group decided to keep meeting as a sort of ad-hoc working group. This group will keep an eye on the progress of the working groups, help connect their work to important audiences, and fill in support gaps for the facilitating organizations. (For example, a member of the signatories group stepped up to co-facilitate the Knowledge Sharing Working Group.) This group is also taking the place – for now – of the planned cross-working group leadership meetings, though we do hope to still create an opportunity for the different working groups to meet with each other. 

UBPF Group Hub in Knowledge Commons: At our launch webinar, we invited anyone who was interested in being a part of this community to register on Knowledge Commons and join the UBPF Group Hub. Our hope was that this would enable asynchronous discussion and community formation. However, due to a combination of technical hurdles (people having trouble signing up) and lack of facilitator bandwidth for seeding those conversations, this hasn’t happened. The signatories group is aware of this as a gap in our planned set of activities, and is thinking about alternative communications strategies to keep the community in the loop. 

UBPF gathering, June 2026: The AUPresses 2026 Annual Meeting and the 2026 Library Publishing Forum are both taking place in June in Seattle, WA. We deliberately scheduled them a day apart so that we could co-host a day of joint programming (June 16) that would welcome participants from both conferences (and anyone who just wants to pop in for the day). Plans for that event are still in development, but we are tentatively planning for it to be University-Based Publishing Futures-themed, so please pencil it in! In addition to giving us our first opportunity to gather in person, that event will serve as a check-in point for the community. The working groups are considering it a deadline for their current work packages, so it will be a good moment to think about next steps for this community. 

June 18, 2025

Save the date and call for volunteers: 2026 Library Publishing Forum

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Library Publishing Forum 2026

The Library Publishing Coalition invites you to save the date for our next in-person conference: June 17-18, 2026, in Seattle, Washington. Many thanks to long-time LPC member institution University of Washington for hosting our first west-coast Forum since 2019.

Collaboration with AUPresses

We are also thrilled to announce that we are co-locating the Forum with the Association of University Presses’ Annual Meeting (6/13-15) and that our two communities will collaborate on a day of shared programming on Tuesday, June 16. 

Travel challenges

We recognize that travel—especially international travel—is increasingly difficult for many community members for a variety of reasons. After extensive discussion (including with attendees of the 2025 virtual Forum), we have decided there is sufficient interest in an in-person conference to make it worth trying. The opportunity to work closely with AUPresses also tipped the scales in favor of meeting in person next year. To those who already know you won’t be able to travel to Seattle, please know that we see you, we value your participation in the community, and we are exploring ways to facilitate remote engagement with the conference. Speaking of which …

LPForum26 Remote Engagement Task Force

If you are invested in the success of the Forum and in creating opportunities for virtual participation, we invite you to volunteer for a special task force! See the call for volunteers for details.  

Questions?

As always, if you have any questions, please email contact@librarypublishing.org. We hope to see you next year in Seattle!

June 18, 2025

Help us make the 2026 Library Publishing Forum accessible to everyone!

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We are planning to be back in person for the 2026 Library Publishing Forum, and there was quite a bit of discussion at this year’s virtual Forum about barriers to attendance. We have heard about cuts to travel funding at some institutions, and we recognize that travel is increasingly risky for a variety of reasons. There is still enough interest to justify an in-person event, but we want to do everything possible to include community members who can’t be there in person. We don’t have the resources for a fully hybrid conference, but there are a variety of tools at the community’s disposal that may be useful in this effort. These include volunteer livestreaming (those of you who have been around for a while may recall that we used to do this!), supporting the hosting of local and regional gatherings), and some of the tools we use during virtual Forum years (like our Discord server). 

We are looking for volunteers for a task force that will help us plan and implement a remote engagement with next year’s Forum. This group will work closely with LPC’s Program Committee (which plans the conference program) and the LPC staff responsible for conference logistics. It would be wonderful to have some task force members who are planning to attend in the Forum in person, as well as some who will be relying on the group’s work to participate remotely. You do not need to be at an LPC member institution, or to have attended the Library Publishing Forum, to serve on this group. The group will meet monthly starting in July of this year, wrapping up its work after the Forum next June. 

If you’re interested, please fill out the volunteer form by July 18. Email contact@librarypublishing.org with questions. 

April 14, 2025

Announcing the winners of the 2025 Award for Outstanding Scholarship in Library Publishing

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The expansion of the library publishing community over the past decade has increased the need for research and scholarship to inform best practices and demonstrate impact. Every two years, the Library Publishing Coalition (LPC) gives an annual Award for Outstanding Scholarship in Library Publishing to acknowledge impactful contributions to this growing body of work and to encourage its development.

As the LPC’s Research Committee, we are delighted to announce that this year’s award recipients are Jessica Kirschner, Hillary Miller, Preeti Kamat, Jose Alcaine, Sergio Chaparro, and Nina Exner for their article, “To Open or Not to Open: An Exploration of Faculty Decisions to Publish Open-Access Articles” (Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication). The article explores the factors influencing faculty decisions to publish in closed- or open-access formats, ultimately demonstrating the significance of the tenure and promotion process in their decision-making. Their survey data provides compelling evidence that library publishers throughout the community can use in advocating for policy changes to promote open access at their institutions. The authors will receive a cash award of $500 and complimentary registration to the 2025 and 2026 Library Publishing Forums.

The Research Committee would like to acknowledge two additional outstanding contributions to scholarship on library publishing with honorable mentions. Emma Molls and Kate McCready’s “The Open Monograph Distribution and Acquisitions Gap: A Look at TOME Titles” (Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication) examines the discoverability of and access to monographs published through the TOME initiative to make informed recommendations to libraries for developing and refining management strategies. Jessica Lange and Sarah Severson’s “Organizational Structures and Relationships in Canadian, Noncommercial Journals: Supporting Scholar-Led Publishing” (College & Research Libraries) draws on the examples of fifteen Canadian non-profit journals to examine how organizational structures and relationships with external partners bear on daily operations and long-term sustainability.

Please join us in congratulating all these authors on their valuable contributions to our field!

LPC Research Committee
Karen Bjork
Matthew Goldberg
Matt Hunter
John Morgenstern
Talia Perry
Mai Yamamoto

April 11, 2025

Reaffirming LPC’s Commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility

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The increasing attacks on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) in the United States at the national and state levels has negatively impacted research and scholarly communication and caused harm to many in our community, professionally and personally. The Library Publishing Coalition (LPC) reaffirms our commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility and support of the Coalition for Diversity and Inclusion in Scholarly Communications (C4DISC).

LPC’s commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in library publishing is foundational to our vision of providing a “scholarly publishing landscape that is open, inclusive, and sustainable” through its values of openness and diversity. This vision is aligned with that of Educopia, our fiscal sponsor—“Reduced inequalities, increased access to knowledge.” 

LPC has actively sought to create a safer space for all in our community and to promote work that increases equity in libraries and publishing. Efforts undertaken by LPC to advance DEIA in the coalition and in library publishing include:

  • Founding membership in C4DISC in 2018 and adoption of the C4DISC Joint Statement of Principles in 2020
  • Creation of a Diversity and Inclusion Task Force in 2019
  • Formalization of the task force into the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee in 2019 (updating the name to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in 2024)
  • Creation of LPC’s first Roadmap for Anti-Racist Practice in 2021, which continues to be updated and guides the work of LPC’s Board, committees, task forces, and working groups.
  • Addition of a DEIA Officer position to the LPC Board in 2024

As a supportive and welcoming community, LPC will continue to uphold our inclusive values by continuing to center diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in our activities and support those in our community who have been impacted by the changing political climate. 

March 7, 2025

Announcing the new LPC Board members for 2025-2028

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We are delighted to announce the four new incoming LPC Board members, with terms running from July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2028:

  • Corinne Guimont, Virginia Tech
  • Liz Hamilton, Northwestern University
  • Ariana Santiago, University of Houston
  • Daniel Tracy, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

They will join returning Board members:

  • Harrison Inefuku, President (2023-2026)
  • Sonya Betz, (2023-2026)
  • Leigh-Ann Butler (2024-2027)
  • Erin Jerome (2024-2027)
  • Annie Johnson (2024-2027)
  • Angel Peterson, (2023-2026)
  • Regina Raboin (2024, 2027)
  • Janet Swatscheno, 2022-2025 Past President (2025-2026)
  • Melanie Schlosser, Educopia Institute, melanie@educopia.org (ex officio, community facilitator)

The Library Publishing Coalition Board oversees the governance, organizational structure, Bylaws, and the review and direction of the membership of the Library Publishing Coalition. As your elected representatives, you are welcome to contact them at any time with questions, comments, or suggestions for LPC.

Many thanks to outgoing Board members Amanda Hurford and Liz Scarpelli!