LPC News

September 18, 2024

Wrapping up our 10th anniversary celebration with the LPC Yearbook!

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Our thanks to the LPC community for celebrating our 10th anniversary with us over the last year! We’ve had some great conversations (both nostalgic and forward-looking), we’ve eaten some celebratory cupcakes, we’ve given out a special service award, and we’ve welcomed a batch of new members via our 10th anniversary membership special. Now we are putting the icing on the cake that is this year with the publication of the LPC Yearbook.

The Yearbook is an informal, collaborative publication full of photos and quotes contributed by community members, organized by year. If you’ve ever wondered what LPC’s original website looked like (very Drupal-y), or wanted to see photos of our most iconic conference swag ever (the Pubrarian/Liblisher totes from 2016), or just wanted to take a trip down library publishing memory lane, check it out!

Many thanks to the community members who contributed to the Yearbook, but especially Katherine Skinner and Justin Gonder for the wealth of photography.


September 10, 2024

Launching the University-Based Publishing Futures Community

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Please join us on Monday, September 30, 1:00-2:00 pm EDT, for the launch of the University-Based Publishing Futures community.

Register here

In the spring and summer of 2022, the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), Association of University Presses (AUPresses), and Library Publishing Coalition (LPC) convened a series of discussions to explore shared values and common interests related to academy-owned scholarly communications infrastructures. These conversations led to the development of a community formation document and proposed plan of action, including a statement of shared values and commitments that we are proud to share on September 30th. Come to this launch webinar to hear organizational and community leaders explain the history of the initiative, what we mean by university-based publishing, and how to participate in our inaugural projects. Presenters will include Peter Berkery and Brenna McLaughlin (AUPresses), Melanie Schlosser (LPC), Annie Johnson (U of Delaware), Kate McCready (BTAA), and John Sherer (UNC Press).

Agenda:

  • Welcome & Background

  • Importance of the University-Based Publishing Initiative

  • Overview of Community Statement

  • Call to Action

  • Questions


September 3, 2024

PKP implements the Library Publishing Curriculum Introductory Module as a PKP School course

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The Library Publishing Coalition, the Library Publishing Curriculum Editorial Board, and the Public Knowledge Project (PKP) are thrilled to announce the addition of the new Library Publishing Curriculum’s Introduction Module to the PKP School’s Getting Started in Library Publishing series. 

PKP’s new course is based on the Curriculum’s Introduction Module, which includes history, theory, and trends around library publishing as an introduction to the field. PKP writes: “The introduction provides a clear, entry-level overview of the basics, covering the essentials of who, what, when, where, and why in library publishing. It’s designed to give newcomers a solid foundation before diving into the more detailed aspects of the field. The Introduction Module was added to the Library Publishing Curriculum in 2024 and was adapted for PKP School in August of this year.”

The new module, alongside the rest of the Curriculum, is also available as a PDF from WSU’s institutional repository

PKP School is a collection of online, self-paced courses designed to enhance scholarly publishing practices globally. The courses cover a range of topics, and are available in English and Spanish.   

More details can be found in PKP’s announcement about the new course.

Library Publishing Coalition logo               


August 27, 2024

Welcome to our new members!

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We’re thrilled to welcome these LPC members, who have joined or rejoined in the past few months under the 10th Anniversary Membership Special offer!

 

Brown University

Brown University Digital Publications — a collaboration between the University Library and the Dean of the Faculty, generously launched with support from the Mellon Foundation with additional support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Services — creates exciting new conditions for the production and sharing of knowledge. Brown partners with leading scholarly publishers to ensure that these groundbreaking works are validated via rigorous academic review and reach the broadest possible audience for the greatest possible impact. Widely recognized as accessible, intentional, and inclusive, Brown’s novel, university-based approach to digital content development is helping to set the standards for the future of scholarship in the digital age.


University of Maryland

The University of Maryland, College Park (UMD) is the flagship institution of the University System of Maryland. As the only public research university inside the Washington, D.C. beltway, UMD has forged strategic partnerships with national institutions and federal agencies to uniquely position the university’s faculty, researchers and students. Driven by its diverse and proudly inclusive community of more than 40,000 students, 10,000 faculty and staff, and 300 academic programs, UMD is fearlessly committed to addressing the grand challenges of our time and serving the public good.
UMD’s library publishing initiatives are developed by its Open Scholarship Services team, whose mission is to increase knowledge equity and to encourage inclusive and creative approaches to public scholarship. In addition to journals and open educational resources, UMD Libraries hope to support digital scholarship projects in collaboration with the forthcoming StoRI Lab, which will foster innovative research storytelling on our campus.

Adelphi University

Adelphi University is located in Garden City, New York, a short distance from New York City, with satellite campuses in the city, Hudson Valley, and Hauppauge. Adelphi offers a number of highly ranked degree programs for undergraduate and graduate students with particular strengths in psychology, nursing, business, and social work. The digital publishing program at Adelphi University Libraries, which began in 2022, currently publishes a peer-reviewed scholarly journal and an undergraduate magazine. The program is also responsible for managing Adelphi’s institutional repository, Scholarly Works, and using it to disseminate scholarly and creative content produced by the Adelphi community.


Tufts University 

Tufts University is a student-centered R1 research university, with 10 schools and colleges including Arts, Sciences & Engineering, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Medicine, Dental, Veterinary, and the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy. Tufts libraries currently support publishing activities through repositories, DOI minting, support for OER creation, and the Tufts Scholarly Communication Team. We’ve recently signed a hosting agreement with PKP/OJS and are excited to begin

 


VIVA

VIVA is the consortium of academic libraries in Virginia representing 71 institutions of higher education. Members include 39 public colleges and universities, 31 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 Open 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.


July 16, 2024

LPC welcomes a new strategic affiliate: the Library Accessibility Alliance

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The Library Publishing Coalition is delighted to welcome the Library Accessibility Alliance (LAA) as a new strategic affiliate! A statement from LAA:

The Library Accessibility Alliance (LAA) promotes equitable access to library services and electronic resources. Our member libraries are committed to providing equal access to information for all library users, and we work together to improve vendor products, educate our community, and advance digital accessibility.

And a statement from LPC on the new relationship:

We have already started partnering with LAA to incorporate more accessibility-related education into our programming, and we’re grateful for their help with this challenging but critical topic. As library publishers struggle to meet accessibility requirements, LPC hopes to serve as a resource for both professional development and advocacy. This partnership is supporting that work and our community.


June 4, 2024

Understanding the Revised ADA Title II: Implications for Library Publishing

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Accessibility is a critical issue for all library activities, but library publishing has a unique set of opportunities and challenges in this area, including web accessibility and production workflows. With ADA Title II regulations going into effect by the end of June, it is important for library publishers to understand what role they will play. The Library Publishing Coalition and the Library Accessibility Alliance will co-host a webinar on this topic on Tuesday, June 18, at 12:00 p.m. Eastern time.  

Join Pete Bossley, former Deputy ADA Coordinator at The Ohio State University and current Senior Manager of Accessibility at Thomson Reuters for a 60-minute webinar (30-minute presentation followed by Q&A) about the revisions to ADA Title II and its implications for library publishing. He will discuss what public entities need to know about their obligations under the new regulations, and what organizations serving these entities can do to support them in meeting those requirements. Angel Peterson, Production Specialist and Accessibility Coordinator at Penn State, as an expert in both digital accessibility and library publishing, will facilitate the Q&A. 

This webinar is critical for all library publishers LPC and LAA members as well as the broader library community to understand these revision requirements and what’s at stake. 

LAA will host the webinar and include American Sign Language interpretation and captioning. A recording of this event will be shared publicly for those who aren’t able to attend.  

This collaborative effort between LPC and LAA is just the first in an ongoing partnership. While libraries and library publishers are beholden to publishers and their platforms, this new partnership seeks to set a path to meaningful collaboration and action toward ensuring our content and systems are accessible.

Speakers

Peter Bossley is an experienced digital accessibility leader, having spent 17 years professionally in the technology field. He currently leads accessibility specialists at Thomson Reuters, working to make products accessible to the widest audience possible. Prior to his role at Thomson Reuters, he led the digital accessibility compliance program at The Ohio State University. He has also provided consulting services to customers in the private and public sector including nationwide retail and food service, state and local government, as well as being an expert witness in federal court for a national disability rights organization. As a person with a disability himself, but with a strong understanding of the challenge of implementing accessibility at scale, he brings a unique and balanced perspective on accessibility issues. He is a Certified Professional in Web Accessibility by the International Association of Accessibility Professionals.

Angel Peterson is the Production Specialist and Accessibility Coordinator with Penn State University Libraries Open Publishing program. She provides production support for monographs and bibliographies as well as document and web accessibility support and training for all publication types. She has been on the Board of the Library Publishing Coalition since 2023.

Webinar Details

Understanding the Revised ADA Title II: Implications for Library Publishing

Tuesday, June 18, 2024 at 12 PM EDT

Register for Understanding the Revised ADA Title II


May 30, 2024

LPC welcomes Érudit as a new strategic affiliate

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

With over 5 million users a year, Érudit is Canada’s leading platform for disseminating research in the humanities and social sciences. Supported by an inter-university consortium, it provides French and English research communities with a range of services in digital publishing and dissemination. Érudit works with the Public Knowledge Project in Coalition Publica, a partnership to advance research dissemination and digital scholarly publishing in Canada. Together, we are supporting the social sciences and humanities journal community in the transition towards sustainable open access.

And a statement from LPC on the new relationship:

This new relationship with Érudit builds on our existing partnership with the Public Knowledge Project (PKP) and our ongoing support of the Canadian community of library publishers (most recently via the Canadian Community Development Working Group). Having both PKP and Érudit as affiliates will allow us to continue to develop our relationships with each community and with their joint endeavor, Coalition Publica. The Canadian library publishing community is a developing model for other regional and consortial publishing efforts, and it is one that LPC is excited to learn from.

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 Strategic Affiliates icon


April 29, 2024

Announcing the winner of LPC’s first ever Service Leadership Award

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We are delighted to announce the Library Publishing Coalition’s first ever Service Leadership Award. Part of our 10th Anniversary celebrations, this award is designed to recognize a community member who has made multiple, sustained contributions to the community through service and leadership over the last five years. Nominations for the award were sought this past fall from current and former Board members, and the winner was selected by the Board.

The awardee

The award goes to Joshua Neds-Fox (Wayne State University). Over the last 5+ years, Joshua has demonstrated ongoing, unwavering commitment to LPC through service. He has stepped into leadership roles when needed, but has also been happy to follow others’ lead and work quietly in the background. Some highlights of his service include his contributions to and stewardship of the Ethical Framework for Library Publishing, his substantial contributions to LPC’s first Strategic Plan during his term on the Board, his consistent presence on and interim leadership of the Curriculum Editorial Board, and his service on the DEI Committee.

Joshua was nominated for this award by multiple people; here is a quote from one nomination:

“Joshua has given so much of his time and expertise to the LPC community and helped advance the profession in so many ways. He has participated in and/or led multiyear efforts to create and improve the Library Publishing Curriculum and to update the Ethical Framework for Library Publishing. These two LPC resources are among the most comprehensive ones freely provided to the library publishing community, and they raise LPC’s profile in the scholarly communications ecosystem. LPC is incredibly lucky to have such a dedicated and talented individual who is willing to give so much back to the community!”

A statement from Joshua:

“I’m so grateful for this honor and without discounting it, I recognize that most of my colleagues in library publishing have given just as much to this first decade of the coalition, and many have given more. I’m so grateful for this coalition, and the inventive, thoughtful, generous, skilled women and men who make it the unique professional community it is. Perhaps you serve so consistently because your fellow librarians and publishers consistently model service, each of you pushing each other to be the best versions of yourselves. I think that’s what you’ve done with/for/to me, and someone decided to pin an honorarium on it, and I celebrate you for it. Thank you for including me in your remarkable decade, building a new professional coalition, an exemplary body of practice, and a mutually supportive and generous community. I’m so grateful.”

The award

The award consists of a $1,000 honorarium and travel support to attend the 2024 Library Publishing Forum.

Please join us in congratulating Joshua and celebrating 10 years of the Library Publishing Coalition Community!


April 1, 2024

March 2024 LPC Update

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The March 2024 Library Publishing Coalition Update has been published! In it you’ll find recent news from the Library Publishing Coalition including

2024 Library Publishing Forum News

  • Registration is open
  • Keynote announcement
  • Affiliated event (PKP Sprint & Pre-Conference Event)
  • COVID policy released

Community News

  • LPC’s new 5-year Community Plan
  • 10th Anniversary Membership Special
  • Call for entries for 2024 Library Publishing Directory
  • New Board members and updates to the LPC Bylaws
  • Much more!

Blog Post Spotlights

  • The first half dozen Strategic Affiliate Spotlights
  • The newest consortial publishing profile: Private Academic Library Network of Indiana (PALNI)

Read the Update


March 25, 2024

Announcing the new LPC Board members and Bylaws update

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LPC Board Election Results

We are delighted to announce that incoming LPC Board members, with terms running from July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2027 are:

  • Leigh-Ann Butler, Université d’Ottawa | University of Ottawa
  • Sarah Frankel, University of Louisville Libraries
  • Erin Jerome, University of Massachusetts Amherst
  • Annie Johnson, University of Delaware Library, Museums, and Press
  • Regina Fisher Raboin, University of Mass Chan Medical School

They will join the returning Board members:

  • Janet Swatscheno, University of Michigan, jswatsch@umich.edu President (2022-2025)
  • Amanda Hurford, PALNI, Past President (2022-2025)
  • Liz Scarpelli, University of Cincinnati Press (2022-2025)
  • Sonya Betz, University of Alberta (2023-2026)
  • Harrison Inefuku, University of Iowa (2023-2026)
  • Angel Peterson, Penn State University (2023-2026)
  • 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 Justin Gonder and Emma Molls

LPC Bylaws Update

This year’s election was especially important as we worked to update the LPC Bylaws to ensure they are in accordance with our current organization, activities, and values in practice. The Bylaws are our organizational governance document, outlining what the organization is and how it is run. While the Board reviews the document annually, proposed changes accumulate until they reach a significant quantity or bear a significant impact on the daily activities of the organization. The LPC Bylaws were last updated in March, 2022.

Thanks to everyone who voted, we surpassed the required 2/3rds threshold of member institutions voting in favor. Thus, the proposed changes are approved and have gone into effect. You can find the new bylaws on the LPC Website’s About page.