LPC News

December 19, 2017

Announcing our new Publishers and Service Providers Program

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LPC Publishers & Service Providers

As the year draws to a close, we have one more big announcement: the official launch of LPC’s new Publishers and Service Providers Program! The Publishers and Service Providers Program is a multi-tier sponsorship program designed to provide opportunities for its participants to engage with the community of library publishers. To ensure that it is welcoming to a wide range of organizations, the program also includes a free tier consisting of inclusion in LPC’s Publishers and Service Providers list (coming in 2018).

While we have always relied on sponsors to support the Library Publishing Forum, we have not been able to provide opportunities for sponsors and community members to engage during the other 363 days of the year. The new program still includes Forum-only tiers, but it also provides opportunities for organizations who want to participate more fully in the LPC community. Year-round benefits include participation in LPC’s listserv, attendance at member-only events, and the opportunity to present a vendor webinar.

This new program is a companion to our Strategic Affiliates Program, which is focused on peer membership organizations. The Publishers and Service Providers Program is much broader, and is appropriate for a wide range of non- and for-profit organizations. Both programs are intended to help the LPC develop closer relationships with other organizations in our space, to raise the profile of library publishing, and to help our members make connections that will benefit their publishing programs.

Interested in participating? Just fill out this form to get the ball rolling!

December 6, 2017

What library publishing looks like in 2017 – Excerpt from the Library Publishing Directory

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Cover image of the 2018 Library Publishing DirectoryIf you haven’t yet checked out the latest edition of the Library Publishing Directory and the new, searchable online platform, well…they’re pretty cool! See our previous post for the full announcement. While we are super excited about the online platform, the one thing it doesn’t have is the Directory‘s front and back matter, which is more interesting than you’d think.

Each year, the Directory‘s introduction includes a ‘state of the field’ based on that year’s data. It highlights trends and new developments in library publishing as reported by the programs that contribute their information. We wanted to share this year’s on the blog to make it easier to find and discuss. The following is an excerpt from this year’s Directory, written by Melanie Schlosser, Liz Hamilton, Joshua Neds-Fox, Tom Bielavitz, and Alexandra Hoff.

LIBRARY PUBLISHING LANDSCAPE 2018

Each year, the Directory Committee mines the Directory data set in order to highlight trends and unique aspects of library publishing. In our fifth year, the trends and tendencies pointed out in previous introductions have started to reveal themselves as enduring characteristics and essential features of the library publishing landscape. We believe this reflects both the growing data set and the maturing of the field itself. This introduction highlights that continuity (“The Song Remains the Same”) and draws out two of those essential features for consideration (“Openness” and “Publishing and Pedagogy”).

THE SONG REMAINS THE SAME

This year’s data is remarkably consistent with what we have seen in past Directories. Most of the numbers are very similar to last year or within range from previous years. Of the two areas where there are noticeable changes—services and digital preservation—one of them is in line with previously noted trends.

Partnerships

Partnerships remain important to library publishing programs, and individual faculty and campus departments are still our most common partners. We continue to see significant numbers of partnerships with graduate and undergraduate students, and the number of university press partnerships continues to rise slowly. The only substantial change from last year was a jump in partnerships with graduate students (from 72% last year to 77% this year).

(more…)

Promotional image for 2018 Library Publishing Directory
December 6, 2017

Announcing the 2018 Library Publishing Directory and a new online platform

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The Library Publishing Coalition is pleased to announce publication of the 2018 Library Publishing Directory, as well as the launch of a new, searchable online platform for the Directory data.

2018 Library Publishing Directory

This year’s Library Publishing Directory highlights the publishing activities of 125 academic and research libraries, and is openly available in PDF and EPUB format. 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.

New Online Platform for the Directory

We are also excited to share the Directory in a new format – a searchable online platform! As of launch, the new platform includes the data from the 2017 and 2018 Directories, with 2014 through 2016 coming soon. In addition to full-text searching, the new platform allows users to sort and limit by a number of factors, including location, publication types and formats, and software platforms used. We are delighted to provide this new functionality for the Directory’s rich data set, and we welcome feedback on it.

Publication of the 2018 Directory was overseen by the LPC’s Directory Committee:

  • Liz Hamilton, Northwestern University (2017-18 chair)
  • Joshua Neds-Fox, Wayne State University
  • Tom Bielavitz, Portland State University
  • Alexandra Hoff, Purdue University
  • Melanie Schlosser, Educopia Institute (ex officio)

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

November 29, 2017

LPC becomes a PKP Strategic Partner

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Remember when we rolled out our Strategic Affiliates Program a few weeks ago? One of the fun things about launching that program was talking to our new strategic affiliates about the ways that they work with their own communities, and the opportunities for organizations like ours to get involved. As it turns out, the Public Knowledge Project has a similar program of their own – the PKP Strategic Partners. As of today, we are delighted to announce that LPC is an official PKP strategic partner!  Some dueling quotes from the announcement:

John Willinsky, PKP’s Founder and Director stated: “The Library Publishing Coalition represents the growing number of academic libraries in North America and elsewhere that are providing the publishing services and support needed to expand open access. Libraries and open access publications represent two closely aligned and cooperative communities that PKP seeks to serve, and so it is fitting for us to collaborate with the LPC and their members given our sharing of many common goals.”

And our response:

“The LPC is delighted to join the list of PKP’s Strategic Partners and to formalize the already-strong partnership between our two organizations. PKP’s software has been invaluable to the community of library publishers, and our community continues to benefit from innovations such as PKP’s Private LOCKSS Network. We look forward to continuing to work with PKP on community-focused initiatives, and to future collaborations around education and advocacy.”

Thanks for the invitation, PKP – we’re very happy to join!

November 29, 2017

Nominations open for the Award for Outstanding Scholarship in Library Publishing

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Image of a sparkler in a dark forest, name of the award

Have you read (or written) some good scholarship on library publishing this year? If so, consider nominating it for the 2018 Award for Outstanding Scholarship in Library Publishing! The award is given out by LPC’s Research Committee to recognize an excellent research or theory publication from the previous calendar year. Publications can be nominated by the author or by any staff member from an LPC member institution. (Nominated author(s) do not need to be affiliated with a LPC member institution.) Please read the eligibility criteria, and turn in your nominations by January 16, 2018.

Nominate

November 15, 2017

LPC welcomes a new strategic affiliate: Digital Public Library of America

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Logo for the Digital Public Library of America

The Library Publishing Coalition is delighted to welcome the Digital Public Library of America as a new strategic affiliate! A statement from DPLA:

The Digital Public Library of America is excited to join the members of Library Publishing Coalition in our shared goal of maximizing access to open and trustworthy information. DPLA connects people to the riches held within America’s libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural heritage institutions and we are working to expand the discoverability, accessibility, and availability of ebooks for the general public. DPLA’s vision for improving the ebook ecosystem includes helping libraries serve more open access content, such as Creative Commons-licensed fiction and nonfiction, open textbooks and open educational resources, and public domain classics. As part of this work, DPLA is currently piloting the DPLA Exchange (exchange.dp.la), a marketplace where libraries can purchase popular ebooks and other e-content to serve to their patrons. For more on DPLA’s ebook initiatives, visit our blog.

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

November 6, 2017

LPC welcomes a new member: University of Cincinnati

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The Library Publishing Coalition is delighted to welcome University of Cincinnati as a member! About their program:

The University of Cincinnati Library Publishing Services (CLiPS) an imprint of the University of Cincinnati Press, provides professional publishing services to faculty, staff, departments, and centers associated with the university. CLiPS assists authors and editors in publishing output in print, digital and open access incorporating new technologies to provide our community with a full range of services promoting academic scholarship. We support faculty-authored publications sponsored by UC academic departments, publications edited by UC organizations, affordable textbooks, open educational resources, and student run publications. We encourage the exploration of new types of publications in print or electronic forms working with materials beyond traditional written papers and monographs.

Logo of the University of Cincinnati Press

 

November 2, 2017

Upcoming Event: Roundtable Discussion on Elsevier’s Acquisition of bepress

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Want to talk about Elsevier’s recent acquisition of bepress and what it means for library publishers? (You know you do!) Join us on Friday, November 17 at 2pm EST for a roundtable discussion hosted by LPC’s Board and facilitated by Joshua Neds-Fox (Wayne State University). See the event post for more details.

About LPC Roundtables: These member-only discussions take place approximately every other month, and each one has a specified topic and an LPC member facilitator, and they often include at least one guest participant. They are informal (no presentations, no recordings), and are designed to give the LPC community an opportunity to discuss a topic of interest, as well as to identify opportunities for collaboration and areas that need further investigation or programming. Roundtable discussions are open to all staff at member institutions.

November 2, 2017

Members section of LPC website is here!

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We hope you’ve been enjoying the public-facing areas of our redesigned website! We’ve been putting the finishing touches on the members section, and are ready to share it with the community. Any staff member at an LPC member institution can request a website login which you can use to:

  • Access the Shared Documentation
  • Upload your program’s documentation to share with the community
  • View other member-only content, such as Board meeting minutes

To request an account, email contact@librarypublishing.org, cc’ing your LPC voting representative.  Please note that LPC website accounts will be linked to the users’ institutional email address, so if you contact us from a third-party email service (e.g. Gmail), make sure to include your institutional email in the message. To share documents via the website, follow the instructions in the policies & procedures document.