LPC Blog

The Library Publishing Coalition Blog is used to share news and updates about the LPC and the Library Publishing Forum, to draw attention to items of interest to the community, and to publish informal commentaries by LPC members and friends.

July 21, 2021

Finding Connectedness, Inspiration, and Comfort at the 2021 Library Publishing Forum

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Last year’s Program Committee was tasked with planning the first born-virtual Library Publishing Forum. Recognizing that a week-long online event would just add to a year’s worth of Zoom fatigue and isolation, they made a concerted effort to add as much compassion and humanity to the experience as they possibly could. (And they managed to put together an outstanding program of presenters as well!)

The Committee and Educopia staff worked closely on the logistics to put together a thought-provoking and humane Forum experience on a limited budget; we think we were successful!  So we decided to pull back the curtain on how it was run to support other organizations that are interested in hosting their own online events on a shoestring. Because we had a lot to say, we published a series of daily posts, each with a different theme.

Happy reading!

More Than a Feeling: Using Design to Create a Shared Experience by Hannah Ballard

Blending the Synchronous with the Asynchronous: Strategies for Planning a Successful Conference Program by Justin Gonder

Stick-With-What-You-Have and Add Slowly: Configuring Technology for a Virtual Conference by Nancy Adams

You Always Need More People Than You Think: Staffing a Virtual Conference by Sonya Betz

Pets, Plants and New Partnerships: Creating Space for Social Activities at LPForum21 by Lauren Collister

Sponsorship, Streamlined: How We Shifted In-Person Benefits to a Virtual Space by Caitlin Perry

Virtual Conferencing on a Shoestring: Thoughts on the Budget by Melanie Schlosser

 

If you have any questions, you can email us at contact@librarypublishing.org and we’ll try to answer them.

July 14, 2021

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

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Library Publishing Coalition logo

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

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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!

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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!

 

Some of the Program Committee members (clockwise from upper left): A.J. Boston, Regina Raboin, Robin Bedenbaugh, Sonya Betz, Justin Gonder, Jane Buggle, and Lauren Collister.

 

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.

Library Publishing Workflows. Educopia Institute. Library Publishing Coalition. Institute of Museum and Library Sciences.
July 7, 2021

Recording of LPWorkflows ‘Working through the Pain’ panel is available!

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In May, Brandon Locke (Educopia Institute), Jennifer Beamer (Claremont Colleges Library), Sonya Betz (University of Alberta Library), and Joshua Neds-Fox (Wayne State University Libraries) discussed the lessons they’ve learned from the LPWorkflows project so far, and how the process of documentation has impacted their program’s approach at the Library Publishing Forum. The recording of their panel, Working through the Pain: How Library Publishers are Learning from Workflow Documentation is now available!

 

June 22, 2021

Publishing Practice Award: University of Cape Town Libraries

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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.

Image of UCT Publishing Programme Staff. Emma de Doncker, Tamzyn Suliaman, Bonga Siyothula, Reggie Raju, Faaediel Latief, Jill Claassen
Pictured top left to bottom right: Emma de Doncker, Tamzyn Suliaman, Bonga Siyothula, Reggie Raju, Faadiel Latief, and Jill Claassen

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

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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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June 22, 2021

Announcing the 2021 Publishing Practice Award Recipients

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The Library Publishing Coalition (LPC) is excited to announce the recipients of the 2021 Publishing Practice Awards! Congratulations to the University of Texas at Arlington Libraries – Mavs Open Press for exemplary work in the category of Accessibility, and to the University of Cape Town Libraries for exemplary work in the category of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

Publishing Practice Award sealThe Publishing Practice Awards are designed to recognize and raise awareness of effective and sustainable library publishing practices. They highlight library publishing programs that exemplify concepts advanced in LPC’s An Ethical Framework for Library Publishing and in LPC’s Values statement. While a representative publication is acknowledged, the focus of these awards is not on the publication’s content, but rather on the process of publishing the piece. The inaugural award categories for 2021 are Accessibility and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

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June 21, 2021

2021 Library Publishing Forum videos and slides

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Did you miss a session at the virtual 2021 Library Publishing Forum? Maybe want to see one again? Here’s your chance!

We’ve been busy in the past few weeks gathering videos, slides, etc., from our second virtual Forum and linking to them from the Forum page on our website.  Though not all sessions are available, an incredible number are, so this is a great time to watch.

Our thanks to presenters for allowing us to share and to all attendees and presenters for making this a successful online event!

Water with the word reflections in all caps with a horizontal line above and below
June 16, 2021

Transitions: standing on the shoulders of librarians

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Transitions is an occasional series where community members reflect on the things they have learned while moving from one institution to another or one role to another. 

By Monica Westin, Google Scholar partnerships lead / technical program manager

In the spring of 2014, I left a PhD program in classical rhetoric to try out a career in scholarly communication. I was immediately hooked by what I saw as unsolved problems in the ecosystem and the potential impact of making academic research easier to access. Except for a brief stint at HighWire Press, I spent the following four years in the institutional repository and library publishing space, first at bepress and then at CDL’s eScholarship, the University of California’s system-wide repository and publishing platform. 

One Monday in November 2018, three days after leaving my job as publications manager for the library publishing program at the CDL, I started a new role as the program manager for partnerships at Google Scholar. The past two and a half years have been eye-opening.

I have three strong memories from my first week. The first is knowing I had made the right decision to take the job when my new boss, Google Scholar co-founder and director Anurag Acharya, described the mission of Scholar to me in our first meeting: that “no matter the accident of your birth,” he told me, you should be able to know about all the papers written in any research field you might want to enter. What you did with that knowledge was up to you. 

My second memory is the expression on Anurag’s face when I admitted I didn’t really understand what robots.txt instructions did. “Goal: be more technical!” I wrote in my notebook that afternoon after spending hours looking up basic web indexing protocol information on Wikipedia. I don’t think he looked quite as disappointed as I remember, but I knew that I could no longer get away with not knowing how things worked. 

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