LPC News

New publication: An Ethical Framework for Library Publishing, Version 1.0
July 24, 2018

An Ethical Framework for Library Publishing, Version 1.0

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The Library Publishing Coalition is very excited to announce the release of a new resource: An Ethical Framework for Library Publishing, Version 1.0. Inspired by discussions at the 2017 Library Publishing Forum, the Framework was created by the members of the Ethical Framework for Library Publishing Task Force, with the assistance of many community members who served as peer reviewers and workshop participants, as well as the staff of the Educopia Institute. The Framework introduces library publishers to important ethical considerations in a variety of areas and provides concrete recommendations for ethical scholarly publishing. As the version number in the title suggests, this is meant to be an evolving document – to be updated and expanded over time. We would love to hear from the community about how this document is useful to you and how it could be improved – please email contact@librarypublishing.org with feedback and suggestions!

The Framework is now available in HTML and PDF, both of which can be accessed via LPC’s Resources page. Many thanks to Purdue University Libraries for their production support and for hosting the PDF version of the document!

The Framework is released under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, so it can be freely copied, distributed, and built upon. However, where possible, please link to the version of record rather than reposting, to help us track the document’s impact and to ensure that the latest version is easily discoverable.

July 24, 2018

Call for entries: 2019 Library Publishing Directory

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Does your library publish journals, monographs, conference proceedings, or technical reports? Do you provide hosting and support services for digital humanities projects, data, or ETDs? Help us to document the range of activities that libraries are undertaking in “publishing” (broadly defined) through their work in scholarly communications, digital humanities, digital sciences, and institutional repositories. To promote collaboration and knowledge-sharing, and to raise the visibility of the unique contributions of libraries as publishers, the Library Publishing Coalition (LPC) is compiling the sixth edition of our Library Publishing Directory.

To have a profile of your library included in the Directory, please complete our questionnaire by August 24th. 

The questionnaire takes between 30 and 45 minutes to complete. You can save your progress and return later, but we recommend previewing the questions before you begin. If your library has had an entry in a previous edition of the Directory, you should receive an email with instructions on how to update it. Email contact@librarypublishing.org with questions. 

About the Directory

The Library Publishing Directory is an important tool for libraries wishing to learn about this emerging field, connect with their peers, and align their practices with those of the broader community. Last year’s edition featured 156 libraries in half a dozen nations. The Directory is published openly on the web and includes contact information, descriptions, and other key facts about each library’s publishing services. Previous editions (in PDF, EPUB, and database versions)  can be found on the LPC website.

The Directory is made possible by the generous donation of services from Purdue University Libraries and Bookmasters.

Submit an Entry

July 18, 2018

LPC welcomes a new member: Dublin Business School

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The Library Publishing Coalition is delighted to welcome Dublin Business School as a new member! About DBS:

DBS Library aims to be a leading force in the creation of a library publishing culture in Ireland;  publishing journals and monographs, teaching and sharing best practice, fostering networks and communities within Irish academia and internationally. DBS Library Press is a centre for expertise in library publishing in Ireland; supporting academic discourse and pedagogy through the publication of peer-reviewed, open access journals and monographs.  DBS Library Press currently publishes two journals, DBS Business Review and Studies in Arts and Humanities Journal.  Both journals are open access, peer-reviewed, cross-institutional academic journals.  Library staff occupy key roles on both journals; Managing Editor, Senior Editor and Editorial Board membership.

DBS, Dublin Business School, excellence through learning

July 17, 2018

LPC welcomes a new strategic affiliate: SPARC

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SPARC with a red star graphic

The Library Publishing Coalition is delighted to welcome the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) as a new strategic affiliate! A statement from SPARC:

SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) is delighted to officially join the Library Publishing Coalition’s Strategic Affiliates Program to promote openness and community-driven change in the scholarly communications arena. As a catalyst for action, SPARC focuses on collaborating with other stakeholders—including authors, publishers, libraries, students, funders, policymakers and the public—to build on the opportunities created by the Internet, promoting changes to both infrastructure and culture needed to make open the default for research and education. SPARC and the LPC share core values and a commitment to openness and advocacy, and we’re looking forward to expanding our collaboration to expand the open sharing of research outputs and educational materials. To learn more about SPARC and our global affiliates in Africa, Europe and Japan, please visit our site.

And a statement from LPC on the new relationship:

 LPC’s vision is “a scholarly publishing landscape that is open, inclusive, and sustainable,” and SPARC’s work advocating for openness around the world has been transformational – for libraries, for scholars, and for scholarship itself in many areas. We are thrilled to add SPARC to our list of strategic affiliates and to officially recognize our shared values and goals. We look forward to continuing and expanding collaboration between our two organizations.

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

July 10, 2018

Announcing a new LPC sponsor: Scholastica

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We are excited to announce a new organization-level sponsorship through our Publishers and Service Providers Program: Scholastica. We sincerely appreciate their support!

Statement from Scholastica

Scholastica is a web-based software platform with easy-to-use tools and services for every aspect of publishing academic journals— from peer review, to website design and article hosting, to typesetting. Scholastica’s mission is to create tools to publish academic journals more efficiently and affordably in order to facilitate a sustainable research future. Over 700 journals across disciplines use Scholastica software to manage peer review and publish modern open access articles online.

We see a future where the majority of academic journals are owned and operated by the academy, instead of large corporate publishers. And we believe the way to make that possible is to take the manual work and technical headaches out of publishing with great software so that any organization can run their own journals. Scholastica is proud to be a Library Publishing Coalition sponsor and committed to supporting community-led open access publishing.

Scholastica

Colorful books with gray overlay and text that reads: "Library publishing curriculum. Virtual workshop. Sustainability module. July 9-30, 2018. Taught by Holly Mercer, Associate Dean for Research, Collections, and Scholarly Communications, University of Tennessee, Knoxville." Educopia Institute, Library Publishing Coalition, and IMLS logos included.
June 11, 2018

Library Publishing Curriculum: Register for the Sustainability Virtual Workshop

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The Library Publishing Coalition and the Educopia Institute are excited to host a series of virtual pilot workshops based on the IMLS-funded Developing a Curriculum to Advance Library-Based Publishing project. Our first virtual workshop – Library Publishing Curriculum: Sustainability – will begin on July 9, 2018 and will last four weeks, ending on July 30. The workshop is limited to 30 participants, and registration is first come, first served. There is no registration fee.  

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May 10, 2018

Announcing two new LPC sponsors: ProjectMUSE and BiblioBoard

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We are excited to announce two new organization-level sponsorships through our Publishers and Service Providers Program: Project MUSE and BiblioBoard. We sincerely appreciate their support!

Statement from Project MUSE:

Project MUSE was born from a collaboration between the Johns Hopkins University Press and the Milton S. Eisenhower Library of the Johns Hopkins Sheridan Libraries. We are delighted to continue our involvement with the library community by supporting the Library Publishing Coalition. Project MUSE provides a full-service journal and book hosting platform. Libraries can publish open access journals and books on MUSE or use our fulfillment services to offer subscription-based journals. Content on MUSE benefits from synergies with our corpus of 600+ journals and 50,000+ books from non-profit publishers.

Project MUSE logo

Statement from BiblioBoard:

BiblioBoard is a leader in OER and OA content creation, curation and distribution software. Our platform transforms access to information by delivering a simple, intuitive user experience along with the best content creation tools. We work with public and academic institutions of all sizes to democratize access to information and lower costs for students.

BiblioBoard logo

Stack of books, "Library Publishing Curriculum", logos of LPC, Educopia, and IMLS
May 3, 2018

Library Publishing Curriculum: Sustainability module released

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Professional development for library publishers has been a priority for LPC since its initial project phase. We put on lots of fantastic webinars, and of course the Library Publishing Forum can’t be beat, but there is still an unmet need for more comprehensive, structured educational resources for this growing field. Fortunately, as part of the ‘Developing a Curriculum to Advance Libary-Based Publishing‘ project, a stellar team of individuals and organizations has been working for the last year to develop a set of openly-licensed curriculum materials.  This project is a partnership of Educopia, LPC, the Public Knowledge Project, NASIG, and BlueSky to BluePrint, generously funded by the Institute for Museum and Library Services.

We are delighted to announce the release of the Sustainability Module, the third module to be released in the four-part curriculum series! Two other modules, Content and Impact, were made available earlier this year, and the final module, Policy, will be released later this summer. Each module contains an introduction plus 4-7 “units” that address topics of interest. Each unit includes the following components: a narrative, a slideshow with talking notes, activities for use in a physical or virtual classroom for workshops and courses.

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Our Newest Members: PALNI, Penn State, ATLA, Guelph, UNCG, Binghamton U, and Columbia
April 24, 2018

Welcome to our seven new members!

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Remember when we announced a last quarter membership special? The response to it was beyond our wildest dreams, and we are very excited to announce our new members: American Theological Library Association (ATLA), Binghamton University, Columbia University, Private Academic Library Network of Indiana (PALNI), Penn State, University of Guelph, and University of North Carolina Greensboro.

All seven are full LPC members as of April 1st, and we are excited to see many of them at the upcoming Library Publishing Forum. Welcome, colleagues!

Wheat field scene with blue sky with mission, vision, values text overlaid
April 19, 2018

Check out LPC’s new Vision, Mission, and Values statements

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As part of a strategic planning process this year, LPC’s Board has revised the organization’s Vision and Mission, and has articulated a set of Values. We love these new statements, and we feel that they encapsulate the work that LPC is doing as well as the big picture goals of our community:

Vision

A scholarly publishing landscape that is open, inclusive, and sustainable.

Mission

The Library Publishing Coalition (LPC) extends the impact and sustainability of library publishing and open scholarship by providing a professional forum for developing best practices and shared expertise.

Values

  • Professionalism: We seek to improve the quality and sustainability of library publishing through advocacy, professional development, and shared best practices.
  • Openness: We believe that the products and processes of scholarly communication should be as open as possible, thereby increasing the reach and impact of scholarship worldwide.
  • Diversity: Recognizing that library publishing has a unique opportunity to amplify underrepresented voices in scholarly communication, we strive to promote inclusivity in all our professional activities.
  • Collaboration: We leverage our collective knowledge and resources to enhance our own publishing efforts and to support other libraries in developing scholarly publishing programs.
  • Innovation: As research and scholarly communication continue to evolve, we explore and engage with new technologies and new models of publishing to better support the needs of the scholarly community.

These new statements have been added to our About Us page. We welcome feedback on them from LPC members and the wider community!