LPC News

March 4, 2020

Call for Applications: Library Publishing Curriculum Editorial Board Members

The LPC Board seeks applications for the Library Publishing Curriculum Editorial Board. Created in partnership with the Educopia Institute as part of a project generously funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Library Publishing Curriculum is moving to its permanent home as an ongoing program of the LPC. Under the leadership of the Curriculum’s new Editor-in-Chief (EIC), Cheryl E. Ball (Wayne State University), the editorial board will identify maintenance and development needs for the Curriculum, oversee (and occasionally perform) that work, and promote the wide adoption and use of the Curriculum. The editorial board will consist of nine volunteer members, working under the guidance of the EIC and reporting to the LPC Board. 

Membership Qualifications and Term Lengths

Highly desired qualifications include:

• Accomplishment and expertise in library publishing 
• Research/publishing experience
• Experience with curriculum development 
• Strong commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion 

It is not necessary for candidates to possess robust experience in all the above areas, but they should be able to demonstrate experience with at least one or two. While service on most LPC working groups is limited to staff at member institutions, a limited number of editorial board spots will be open to non-members. All interested individuals are encouraged to apply. 

Members will serve three-year terms, which can be renewed once. Members who want to serve more than two consecutive terms must reapply. Estimated time commitment will be 5–6 hours a month, unless a member decides to take on additional writing/revision responsibilities. 

Responsibilities

Identifying work needed: The editorial board will be responsible for identifying gaps and opportunities in the curriculum, including new units, updates or adaptations of existing units (e.g., adapting the copyright unit for another country’s copyright landscape), translations, and other projects that will increase the currency, utility, and breadth of the curriculum. 

Recruiting and guiding project participants: The editorial board will recruit project participants and guide them through their project work; these individuals would work with the editorial board to devise and implement major revisions or additions to the curriculum. 

Authoring/updating curriculum content: For small projects, the editorial board may decide to undertake the work itself, rather than recruiting project participants. 

Identifying resources for curriculum development: For projects the editorial board wants to undertake that will require outside funding or other resources, the group will work with the EIC and LPC’s Board to identify potential funding sources and apply for grants. 

Ensuring high quality content: The editorial board will ensure that existing content is still useful and relevant, and that new content developed meets project goals and quality expectations.

Curriculum promotion: The editorial board is responsible for promoting new and revised content, and encouraging adoption of the curriculum in a variety of settings. 

Application Process

Applicants should submit a one-page statement outlining your qualifications and a CV by May 22nd to Nancy Adams at contact@librarypublishing.org. Nominations will also be accepted at that email address until May 10, after which nominees will be invited to submit materials until the deadline. LPC’s Board will review candidates at its June meeting and select the new editorial board, which will start July 1, 2020. 

March 4, 2020

New LPC Board members elected

The nine-member Library Publishing Coalition Board oversees the governance, organizational structure, bylaws, and the review and direction of the membership of the Library Publishing Coalition. We have three newly elected Board members, with terms running from July 1, 2020, to June 30, 2023:

• Jessica Kirschner, Virginia Commonwealth University
• Ally Laird, Penn State University
• Emma Molls, University of Minnesota

They will join the returning Board members:

• Jody Bailey, Emory University (2018-2021)
• Vanessa Gabler, University of Pittsburgh (2018-2021)
• Scott Warren, Syracuse University (2018-2021)
• Karen Bjork, Portland State University (2019-2022)
• Christine Fruin, Atla (2019-2022)
• Sarah Hare, Indiana University (2019-2022)

Many thanks to our outgoing Board members Kate McCready, Catherine Mitchell, and Ted Polley for their service!

February 12, 2020

LPC Board election: Candidate bios and statements

Elections for the Library Publishing Coalition Board open today and will continue through Friday, February 28. Instructions for voting will be sent to each member institution’s voting representative. The candidates are:

• Ally Laird, Penn State University
• Chelsea Johnston, University of Florida
• Emma Molls, University of Minnesota
• Dwayne K. Buttler, University of Louisville
• Jessica Kirschner, Virginia Commonwealth University

Each candidate has provided a brief biography and an election statement:

(more…)

February 10, 2020

Now available: The 2020 Library Publishing Directory!

The Library Publishing Coalition is pleased to announce publication of the 2020 Library Publishing Directory! This year’s Library Publishing Directory highlights the publishing activities of 153 academic and research libraries, and is openly available in PDF and EPUB formats as well as via a searchable online directory.

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. Each year, the Directory’s introduction presents a ‘state of the field’ based on that year’s data, which we also publish in a related blog posting. 

You may notice some differences in the 2020 Directory. These emerged from ongoing work to evaluate the data model and survey collection process, to help ensure the information presented in the Directory accurately reflects the current state of the field and will be useful to a variety of users. Changes for this year include:

• More granular information about publication numbers in the different models (open access, paid, and hybrid)
• Three options for stage of publication instead of 5: Pilot, Early, and Established. Respondents were asked to elaborate on plans for expansion, change of focus, or future direction (including shrinking programs) in the Additional Information section.
• Further exploration about partnerships, including publisher preference in working with external partners and what types of publications other programs should refer to them.

Publication of the 2020 Directory was overseen by the LPC’s Directory Committee:

• Jessica Kirschner, Virginia Commonwealth University (2019-20 chair)
• Robert Browder, Virginia Tech
• Ellen Dubinsky, University of Arizona
• Janet Swatscheno, University of Illinois
• Amanda Wentworth, SUNY Geneseo

We want to acknowledge and thank Purdue University Libraries, Purdue University Press, and Bookmasters for their support for the publication of the Directory since the inaugural 2014 edition. This is Purdue’s final year as the publisher of the Directory, and we are grateful for their support as we established the Directory and created an ongoing program of annual publications. Look for an announcement about the new Directory publisher later in 2020!

January 16, 2020

LPC welcomes a new member: Weill Cornell Medicine–Qatar

A belated welcome to our newest member: Weill Cornell Medicine–Qatar. Welcome, colleagues!

January 7, 2020

Open Publishing Communities: An Information Session

Professional communities can provide many levels of support as you develop open publishing projects and programs. In this info session, facilitated by Amy Hofer, Coordinator, Statewide Open Education Library Services at Open Oregon Educational Resources, you will have the opportunity to learn about three communities that support open publishing practitioners: the Library Publishing Coalition, the Open Textbook Network, and the Rebus Community. Conversation will focus on organizational similarities and differences, new programs to support publishing, approaches to community work. The webinar will be especially helpful to LPC members interested in Open Educational Resource (OER) publishing support. 

Presenters:

• Karen Lauritsen, Publishing Director, Open Textbook Network
• Zoe Wake Hyde, Assistant Director, Rebus Foundation
• Sarah Hare, Scholarly Communications Librarian, Indiana University and Library Publishing Coalition Secretary

This webinar takes place at 2 PM EST/ 11 AM PST on January 23, 2020. The session will be recorded and captioned to share later.

Join the session

Call-in number: 669 900 6833

Participant PIN: 776 101 789

December 16, 2019

LPC welcomes Crossref as a new strategic affiliate

The Library Publishing Coalition is delighted to welcome Crossref as a new strategic affiliate! A statement from Crossref:

“We have seen hundreds of library publishers join Crossref as members over the last few years so the Library Publishing Coalition is a vital partner in helping us to understand the needs of this growing and important group. We’re super happy to be a strategic affiliate and look forward to learning more, seeing where we can help, and to creating information-sharing opportunities and benefits for our mutual members.”

And a statement from LPC on the new relationship:

“Crossref provides important infrastructure for scholarly publishing, and we are very excited to have this opportunity to deepen our existing relationship. We are already planning some important collaborative work in 2020, and we look forward to learning more about how library publishers can most effectively participate in the scholarly ecosystem that Crossref supports.”

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.

December 5, 2019

LPC Mentorship Program: Looking back at year one, getting involved for year two!

It’s time to reflect on the pilot year of our new Mentorship Program and to kick off participation for year two! We’ve made some exciting changes for year two – keep reading to learn about our new focus for 2020 (peer mentorship) and how to get involved.

The pilot year: How did it go? (Spoiler: It was great.)

This year, the Library Publishing Coalition Professional Development Committee introduced a new member opportunity: The LPC Mentorship Program. The goals of the program were two-fold. First, the program aimed to orient mentees to the LPC, to enrich mentors’ experiences with the LPC, and build relationships between the two. A secondary goal of the program was to further the development of library publishing through a professional, semi-structured mentorship program. 

Activities of the program included a virtual getting-to-know you meeting to kick things off, continuing with monthly calls and email correspondence between mentors and mentees.  Participants were provided with a list of suggested questions to help start their mentor/mentee relationship, and were then encouraged to continue the discussions in whatever direction was most desirable for the partners. An in-person meetup also took place at the Library Publishing Forum in Vancouver to provide an opportunity to further strengthen relationships.  

The meeting at the Forum took place over the lunch hour on the second day, and proved to be quite fruitful! Not all of the mentor/mentee pairs could attend, but we spent the majority of the time sharing out about our experiences and discussing with other participants about what has worked for them, what they enjoyed most, what suggestions they had for improvement, and networking with others that were participating in the pilot year. After the lunch meeting, all mentors and mentees were sent the list of discussion questions we used at the lunch, and were also encouraged to fill out a mid-year survey to assess the program and provide feedback.

The first cohort is currently wrapping up their participation, and their reception of this program has been positive. Participants of the first pilot year had many good things to share, including the following:

“Things are going well! Really nice to have time and energy dedicated to chatting with a peer who does not have the same institutional context as me.” – Emma Molls, University of Minnesota

“I really enjoyed serving as a mentor during this inaugural year of the LPC Mentorship Program. Benefits included expanding my professional network through forming a strong relationship with my mentee, broadening my expertise through learning about library publishing at his university, and the opportunity to contribute back to this wonderful community. All of these positives resulted from a minimal time commitment of about one hour per month to meet with my mentee, so future program participants can be confident that they will receive an outstanding payoff with nominal effort.” — Jody Bailey, Emory University

“The LPC Mentorship program did a fantastic job pairing me with the best mentor for my individual professional development goals. My mentor and I connected from the get-go and I learned so much from her experiences and advice, and made a real friend. Given how thoughtful and personalized the process, I think that this program is an essential tool in an early-career library publishing professional’s toolkit as they start out!” — Amanda Wentworth, SUNY OER Services

“Being quite new to library publishing, the LPC mentorship program was a fantastic way to get a personal & friendly introduction to the world of library publishing outside of my own institution. It was incredibly helpful to compare & contrast how location, institutional history, funding, and size of operation affects our daily workflows. My mentor was very generous and I got access to some excellent resources to share with my team!” — Emily Zheng, University of Alberta

Interested in being a peer mentor in 2020?

In response to a successful pilot year, the LPC Professional Development Committee will be offering the program again, with one key change. The focus for the 2020 year will be on peer mentor relationships, rather than having specific mentor and mentee roles. We hope to welcome many more members into the 2020 LPC Peer Mentorship Program!

Timeline for 2020 Cycle:

• Applications out now! (Don’t worry, we’ll remind you again about applications in early January! We’ll be accepting applications through Jan. 17.)
• Matching: We’ll match you with your new Peer Mentor by Jan. 24.
• Orientation: Participants will receive a packet of information and resources and will arrange their first meeting with their peer mentor in February. 
• Library Publishing Forum: May 4-6, Worcester, Massachusetts 
  • The LPC Professional Development Committee will host a lunch or meet-up for participants.
• More throughout your time in the program!
  • Check-in emails (1 month, 3 months)
  • A virtual discussion group (mid-way)
  • A Mid-year Check-in (6 months) with survey
  • Complete 12-month post-cycle/cohort evaluation with exit survey

Apply for the 2020 LPC Peer Mentor Program now!

December 3, 2019

Jessica Kirschner receives the 2019 LPC Award for Exemplary Service

On behalf of the LPC Board, we are delighted to announce that the recipient of the 2019 LPC Award for Exemplary Service is Jessica Kirshner, Open Educational Resources Librarian at Virginia Commonwealth University. The Award recognizes substantial contributions by an LPC community member to advancing the mission, vision, and values of the Library Publishing Coalition. Jessica served as the chair of the Directory Task Force during the 2018-19 program year, and is currently serving as the chair of the Directory Committee. She was nominated for the award because of her dedication and effective leadership, both in steering the publication of the 2020 Directory and in revising the Directory’s data model for the future. This award recognizes her unique contributions to the community. 

A statement from Jessica:

“It’s an honor to be recognized with this year’s LPC Award for Exemplary Service. Having served on and chaired the Directory Committee/Task Force, I’ve had the opportunity to work with great colleagues from the library publishing community to review the Directory’s current data model. This work will ensure that the information we collect—and the process we use to collect it—serves the needs of both LPC members and the library publishing community at large. I look forward to the release of the 2020 Directory, as well as the exciting partnership with IFLA through which we will share information on library publishing programs on an even larger scale.”

Jessica will receive a complimentary registration to this year’s Library Publishing Forum and a $50 gift card. She will also be recognized at the Forum.