LPC News

September 20, 2021

Nominations open for the 2021 LPC Award for Exemplary Service

As participation in library publishing grows, community involvement and leadership has become increasingly important for the profession. To encourage and recognize such service, the Library Publishing Coalition (LPC) gives out an annual Exemplary Service Award. The award recognizes substantial contributions by an LPC community member to advancing the mission, vision, or values of the Library Publishing Coalition. 

Nominations, including self-nominations, may be submitted to the LPC Board by any member of the LPC community. Anyone who is at an LPC member institution can nominate someone. Deadline for nominations is October 8, 2021. Please use the nomination form and include the nominee’s name, affiliation, and email address, as well as a brief statement on why the nominee deserves the award. The winner will be announced in December. 

Criteria for the award

Awardees must:

• Have contributed substantially to advancing the mission, vision, or values of the Library Publishing Coalition through service.
• Have served on an LPC committee or task force within the last three years.
• Be currently employed by an LPC member institution.
• Not be currently serving on the LPC Board.

Substantial contributions may include:

• Effective leadership of or exemplary contributions to a committee or task force.
• Advocacy on behalf of the LPC or the creation or strengthening of LPC relationships with other groups.
• Significant contributions to the creation of a new program within the LPC or to the expansion, or adoption, of programs and services for members.

The award will consist of a complimentary registration to the 2022 Library Publishing Forum (May 25-26, Pittsburgh, PA), $500 travel support for attending the Library Publishing Forum, and a $250 honorarium. 

Submit a Nomination

August 5, 2021

LPC welcomes a new strategic affiliate: Jisc

The Library Publishing Coalition is delighted to welcome Jisc as a new strategic affiliate!

About Jisc:

Jisc’s vision is for the UK to be the most digitally advanced education and research nation in the world. At its heart is the super-fast national research and education network, Janet, with built-in cyber security protection.  Jisc also provides technology solutions for its members (colleges, universities and research centres) and customers (public sector bodies), helps members save time and money by negotiating sector-wide deals and provides advice and practical assistance on digital technology. Jisc is funded by the UK higher and further education and research funding bodies and member institutions.

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.

August 3, 2021

Kudos!

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

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This month we have two Kudos to celebrate!

For their work on awarding the FIRST Publishing Practice Awards: Laureen Boutang (University of Minnesota), Clayton Hayes (Wayne State University), Suzanne Stapleton (University of Florida), Michelle Brailey (University of Alberta), Sam Byrd (Virginia Commonwealth University), Race MoChridhe (Atla)

A big thank you to the work of last year’s Publishing Practice Award Committee for awarding LPC’s first ever publishing practice awards! The idea for this award started years ago, became a task force, and was made possible by Laureen Boutang, Sam Byrd, Clayton Hayes, Suzanne Stapleton, Michelle Brailey, and Race MoChridhe. This committee recruited two fantastic guest judges and selected the inaugural winners, creating a strong foundation for what will become an annual tradition in the Library Publishing Coalition community. Kudos! Thank you!

This kudos was submitted by Emma Molls.

For their work on compiling the new Library Publishing Directory research data set: Janet Swatscheno (University of Illinois at Chicago), Perry Collins (University of Florida), Ellen Dubinsky (University of Arizona), Ian Harmon (West Virginia University), Laura Miller (Florida State University), Liz Bedford (University of Washington), Talea Anderson (Washington State University), Jennifer Beamer (The Claremont Colleges), Jonathan Grunert (SUNY Geneseo), Corinne Guimont (Virginia Tech), Matt Hunter (Florida State University), Liz Scarpelli (University of Cincinnati), Dan Tracy (University of Illinois), Sarah Wipperman (Villanova University)

The Directory Committee and the Research Committee worked together to prepare and release a research data set version of the Library Publishing Directory that includes data from all published Directories and contextual information to support their use in research. The Directory committee pulled together the data set by standardizing data across years, providing a data dictionary, and providing access to the data collection instruments for each Directory. The Research Committee created a readme file for the data set with information about rights, data collection methods, and other contextual information; and created a crosswalk to help researchers track related data points across years. Both groups coordinated on the announcement and promotion of the new resource. This was a large undertaking on top of both committees’ regular work, and involved researching and developing a type of resource that LPC hasn’t worked with before. Kudus to both groups!

This kudos was submitted by Melanie Schlosser.

Congratulations to all and our thanks for all your work!

July 14, 2021

Call for 2022 Entries: Library Publishing Directory and IFLA Library Publishing SIG Global Library Publishing Map

The Library Publishing Coalition (LPC) and the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) Library Publishing Special Interest Group (LibPub SIG) have partnered to survey the landscape of publishing in libraries across the globe. LPC is seeking submissions for its 9th annual Library Publishing Directory. IFLA’s LibPub SIG has created a first-of-its-kind Map of global library publishing initiatives. Together, we invite you to share information about your library’s publishing activities. 

Libraries that complete the short form survey will appear in the IFLA LibPub Sig’s Global Library Publishing Map.  Libraries that wish to be included in the Library Publishing Directory can go on to fill out the full questionnaire (30-45 minutes to complete). Get started at  https://librarypublishing.org/lpdq-2022. (If your library has had an entry in a previous edition of the Directory, you will receive an email with instructions on how to update it. Email contact@librarypublishing.org with questions.) 

While this year the questions are in English, in the future we hope to be able to translate them into IFLA’s official languages. Responses in English are strongly preferred; we may not be able to include responses in other languages. 

The call for entries will close on Monday, September 13, 2021.
NOTE: The deadline for entries has been extended to Monday, September 20, 2021.

Thank you for joining in this great international collaboration. We look forward to your participation.

The Library Publishing Coalition Directory Committee
Perry Collins, University of Florida, Chair
Ian Harmon, West Virginia University
Karen Stoll Farrell, Indiana University
Nicholas Wojcik, University of Oklahoma

IFLA Special Interest Group on Library Publishing Subcommittee
Grace Liu (Canada)
Ann Okerson (USA)

About the Library Publishing 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 scholarly publishing community. Last year’s edition featured over 150 libraries in almost a dozen nations.

The Directory is published openly on the web in PDF, EPUB, as an online database of current entries, and as a research data set. It includes contact information, descriptions, and other key facts about each library’s publishing services. A print version of the Directory is also produced. The 2022 edition will be published in early 2022. 

About the IFLA Library Publishing SIG Global Library Publishing Map

The goal of the LibPub SIG Global Library Publishing Map is to document more fully the publishing activities to which IFLA’s members contribute, in order to facilitate a global community of interest and support. The IFLA LibPub Sig Global Library Publishing Map accepts submissions from While this first year the focus is on scholarly/academic library publishers, in the future the SIG plans to open submissions to all types of library publishers: academic, public, and others.

Submit an entry

July 14, 2021

New LPC Resource: Library Publishing Directory Research Data Set

Since 2014, the Library Publishing Directory has served as a yearly snapshot of the publishing endeavors of academic and research libraries.  While the original intent of the project was to raise the profile of library publishing organizations and to underline the value of this work, over the course of time the collected directories have become a unique record of the changing nature of the field, both in the activities pursued and the participants involved. 

The LPC Directory Committee and the LPC Research Committee are therefore pleased to announce the  release of a new resource for researchers interested in the field of library publishing: the Library Publishing Directory research data set. 

This resource is primarily composed of the data that underlie the 2014-2021 Library Publishing Directories, in csv format. Researchers will also find the original survey instrument and data dictionary for each year. For those interested in identifying changes to the survey design, a crosswalk file maps field additions and deletions over time. Finally, a readme file provides descriptive, methodological, and licensing information about the data.

The Library Publishing Coalition plans to update the data set on a yearly basis so that it can continue to be an evolving picture of the field. Our hope is that this new resource will be a generative contribution to the growing evidence base informing best practice and demonstrating the impact of library publishing services. 

Access the data set

July 12, 2021

Kudos to the 2020-21 Program Committee!

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

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This Kudos recognizes Justin Gonder (California Digital Library), Sonya Betz (University of Alberta), Jason Boczar (University of South Florida), A.J. Boston (Murray State University), Robin Bedenbaugh (University of Tennessee), Jane Buggle (Dublin Business School), Johanna Meetz (The Ohio State University), Regina Raboin (University of Massachusetts Medical School), David Scherer (Carnegie Mellon University), and Lauren Collister (University of Pittsburgh) for their outstanding work on the 2021 Library Publishing Forum.

Congratulations to the Program Committee for their work on our first-ever born-virtual Library Publishing Forum! They put together a stellar program (including a number of presentations from colleagues outside of North America) and their thoughtful hosting gave this all-virtual event a human touch. Kudos!

A few comments from Program Committee members:

It was a challenging time to be on a committee planning a conference, but with a group of people this dedicated to getting it done and getting it done well, it turned out to be an incredibly rewarding experience. I can’t wait to see all these incredible humans in person next year.

—Robin Bedenbaugh

I’m proud of the two virtual programs our committee put together and am thankful for the opportunity to connect with the community in this way. We love to see it. Five out of five bloody stars. Would attend again.

—A.J. Boston

It was an honor for me to be involved in the organization of this international Virtual Forum, to be part of the dynamic Program team, and to have had the opportunity to attend the great range of inspiring presentations.

—Jane Buggle

It was exciting to leverage the online nature of this year’s Forum to include a broader, more diverse set of presenters and attendees, and to experiment with new ways of connecting our global library publishing community!

—Justin Gonder

I have been working and collaborating with the LPC Program Planning Committee and Educopia since Spring 2019 and by far it has been the most rewarding committee experience I’ve had in my career! The collegiality, innovation, and dedication to creating the best conference experience for attendees is unparalleled – and I’m proud to be a part of this team.

—Regina Raboin

The committee has much more to say about the Forum: to support other organizations that are interested in hosting thought-provoking, humane events on a shoestring, the Program Committee (and Educopia staff) are working on a series of blog posts that pull back the curtain on how and what it was like to plan and run the virtual Forum. Watch for the series later this month! 

This Kudos was submitted by Melanie Schlosser.

June 22, 2021

Publishing Practice Award: University of Cape Town Libraries

Diversity, equity, and inclusion driving UCT Libraries publishing

by Jill Claasen, Manager, Scholarly Communication & Research, UCT Libraries, and Reggie Raju, Director, Research & Learning, UCT Libraries

At the outset, it is important to acknowledge the LPC Publishing Practice Award Committee for recognizing the contribution of the University of Cape Town’s library publishing programme to the advancement of diversity, equity, and inclusivity. Drawing from the University’s social responsiveness goal, the Library shaped its publishing programme on social justice imperatives in an attempt to deconstruct decades of legislated inequalities entrenched in the system of apartheid.

South Africa is a fledgling democracy that has endured decades of apartheid which compartmentalized higher education, with the historically disadvantaged black institutions being dramatically under resourced (Raju et al., 2020). UCT Libraries has taken the stance that historically advantaged institutions should have a moral obligation to share scholarly content for the advancement of research in the country as a whole and for the greater good of the public. The view held is that the sharing of scholarly output will have a domino effect of accelerating the growth of research in South Africa and Africa. Hence, UCT Libraries’ roll-out of a social justice[1] driven library publishing service to further diversity, equity and inclusivity.

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June 22, 2021

Publishing Practice Award: University of Texas at Arlington Libraries – Mavs Open Press

Growing Together: Implementing Accessibility Practices into OER Workflows

by Michelle Reed, Assistant Professor and Head of the Scholarly Commons, University Library of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (@LibrariansReed); Brittany Griffiths, Publishing Specialist, UTA Libraries; Alexandra Pirkle, Editorial Services Coordinator, UTA Libraries, Katie Willeford, Interim Directory of OER and Learning Resources Librarian (@utalibraries)

Mavs Open Press, operated by the University of Texas at Arlington Libraries (UTA Libraries), offers no-cost services for UTA faculty, staff, and students who wish to openly publish their scholarship. The Libraries’ program provides human and technological resources that empower our communities to create or adapt open educational resources (OER). Course materials published by Mavs Open Press are openly licensed using Creative Commons licenses to allow for revision and reuse and are offered in various digital formats free of charge.

Mavs Open Press has proactively addressed accessibility and inclusion in our work through our OER training program, implementation of accessibility checks throughout the publishing process, and development of an accessibility statement and workflow. The Applied Fluid Mechanics Lab Manual was the first grant-funded OER published by Mavs Open Press and was instrumental in informing how accessibility is integrated into OER publishing at UTA.

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