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.

March 29, 2018

Announcing a new LPC sponsor: MDPI

By Melanie Schlosser

We are happy to announce a new organization-level sponsorship through our Publishers and Service Providers Program: MDPI.

Statement from MDPI:

MDPI is proud to support the Library Publishing Coalition (LPC) through LPC´s publisher program. We believe in the inspiring work done by the LPC library members and in the constructive collaboration across the sectors and we are therefore delighted to be a part of LPC´s vibrant community.

March 21, 2018

Accessibility F.A.Q.s page for the Library Publishing Forum

By Melanie Schlosser

Making the Library Publishing Forum accessible to a diverse group of attendees is a priority for the Library Publishing Coalition and for the Program Committee. Not only do we want the Forum and the library publishing community to benefit from a range of viewpoints and experiences, but we also want to acknowledge the importance of accessibility as a value of library publishing itself. This year’s keynote speaker, Catherine Kudlick, is the Director of the Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability at San Francisco State University, and we have made accessibility one of the themes of this year’s conference. We are looking forward to some great discussion on and shared strategies for accessible publishing!

While it can be challenging for a small conference to plan for and implement many accessibility measures (like ASL translation), there are lots of things we can do easily – including providing solid information for anyone who is thinking about attending. We can also encourage attendees to let us know as early as possible how we can support their participation, as even more expensive or labor-intensive accommodations may be within reach with enough time to plan! As a small step in this direction, for the first time this year, we have created a page for frequently asked questions (F.A.Q.s) about accessibility related to the Library Publishing Forum, based on SIGACCESS’s Guide to Creating a Conference Accessibility FAQ Page. Topics covered include the venue, the transit options, and the kinds of support available. We welcome feedback and additional questions of all kinds, and look forward to building out the information even further for future Forums!

Read the F.A.Q.s

March 13, 2018

LPC welcomes a new strategic affiliate: Digital Library Federation

By Melanie Schlosser

The Library Publishing Coalition is delighted to welcome the Digital Library Federation as a new strategic affiliate! A statement from DLF:

The Digital Library Federation is pleased to join the Library Publishing Coalition in promoting research and supporting vibrant digital publishing practices as a strategic affiliate. Central to DLF’s mission is advancing research, learning, social justice, and the public good through the creative design and wise application of digital library technologies. DLF and LPC share core values and activities of collaboration, advocacy, and openness, as both organizations strive to support a rich and robust scholarly communications ecosystem. The DLF designs and administers programs that meet community needs in many ways, ranging from supporting working groups and affiliate organizations who use the DLF as a framework to get things done, to fostering an array of digital library events and communities of practice, to promoting growth in the field through learning and professional development initiatives. To learn more about the Digital Library Federation and its programs, please visit our site.

And a statement from LPC on the new relationship:

The Library Publishing Coalition is delighted to welcome the Digital Library Federation as an LPC Strategic Affiliate! Our Strategic Affiliates are peer membership organizations with whom we share common goals and values, and the program helps us to align our efforts on behalf of our memberships and the field. In addition to substantial overlap in member institutions, LPC and DLF share a deep commitment to openness and to community-driven change in the scholarly communications landscape. We admire the work that DLF does in a wide variety of areas, and are excited to have this opportunity to deepen our relationship.

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

March 12, 2018

LPC Board elections: Candidate bios and statements

By Melanie Schlosser

Elections for the Library Publishing Coalition Board open today and will continue through Wednesday, March 28th. The candidates are:

Jody Bailey, University of Texas at Arlington
Brad Eden, Valparaiso University
Vanessa Gabler, University of Pittsburgh
Ted Polley, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
Scott Warren, Syracuse University
Mary Beth Weber, Rutgers University

Each candidate has provided a brief biography and an election statement:

(more…)

March 2, 2018

Announcing two new LPC sponsors – PKP and Fulcrum

By Melanie Schlosser

We are excited to announce two new organization-level sponsorships through our Publishers and Service Providers Program: the Public Knowledge Project (PKP) and Fulcrum. We are especially pleased to note that both of our new sponsors are open source software developers affiliated with LPC member institutions (Simon Fraser University and the University of Michigan, respectively). Both are also participating in the upcoming event Owned by the Academy: A Preconference on Open Source Publishing Software, so LPC members and Forum participants should have lots of opportunities to learn about what’s new. We sincerely appreciate their support!

Statement from PKP:

PKP is a non-profit research and development project at Stanford and Simon Fraser University. We provide free, open source publishing/workflow software (Open Journal Systems, Open Monograph Press), as well as free services for technical support (PKP Support Forum), indexing (PKP Index), digital preservation (a LOCKSS based PKP Preservation Network), training (PKP School), and more. We are strong supporters of the Library Publishing Coalition and share their mission to help build the capacity of library-based publishers and publishing service providers in the interest of expanding access to research.

Statement from Fulcrum:

Fulcrum is an open source publishing platform and a hosted solution, helping publishers present the full richness of their authors’ research outputs in a discoverable, accessible, and durable form. Fulcrum is being developed by the University of Michigan Library on the Samvera repository framework, accompanied by a range of publishing services that help small publishers scale their programs efficiently. As library publishers ourselves, we are committed to developing flexible infrastructure that can assist our community’s mission-driven publishing work.

Fulcrum has been developed with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and is being made available as a hosted solution through a business development relationship with LYRASIS.

Promotional image for Library Publishing Curriculum pilot workshops

March 1, 2018

Library Publishing Curriculum pilot workshops at the Forum

By Melanie Schlosser

The Developing A Curriculum to Advance Library-Based Publishing project, generously funded by the Institute for Museum and Library Services, is hosting a pair of in-person workshops at at this year’s Library Publishing Forum based on the first two modules, Content and Impact. Both will take place on Thursday, May 24 (the day after the Forum) at the University of Minnesota. Each workshop is limited to 20 participants, to be selected through a brief but competitive application process. Each workshop will also include two diversity scholarships for attendees (four scholarships in total). While the workshops are affiliated with and will complement the Library Publishing Forum, please note that you do not have to attend the Forum to participate in the workshops or to receive a scholarship. Learn more about the workshops.

Workshop descriptions

Library Publishing Curriculum: Content

The Content workshop will cover how library publishers attract, select, edit, manage, and disseminate content. Attendees will learn how to recruit partners and select content for their program, and how to incorporate diverse voices into each part of the publication process. The workshop will also share information on common production workflows, identifying the resources and staff skills needed to support various editorial strategies and content types.

Instructors: Joshua Neds-Fox, Wayne State University and Charlotte Roh, University of San Francisco

Library Publishing Curriculum: Impact

The Impact workshop will focus on how library publishers measure and extend the impact of their work. Attendees will learn to identify and apply specific impact measures for publications, to assess the performance of a publishing program and publication portfolio, and to build an engagement strategy and evaluate its effects.

Instructor: Rebecca Welzenbach, University of Michigan

(more…)

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

March 1, 2018

First Library Publishing Curriculum modules released: Content and Impact

By Melanie Schlosser

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 first two modules! Each module contains an introduction plus 6-7 “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. (more…)

February 13, 2018

Library Publishing Forum registration and scholarships

By Melanie Schlosser

Registration is now open for the 2018 Library Publishing Forum (May 22-23), Owned by the Academy: A Preconference on Open Source Publishing Platforms (May 21), and the KairosCamp Editors Workshop (May 20-21).

Registration Instructions

Instructions and fees are detailed on our website. New this year: Special discounted rates for students and attendees from low- and middle-income countries!

First-Time Attendee Scholarships

The Library Publishing Coalition is delighted to announce a new program of scholarships for first-time attendees, with an emphasis on bringing new and diverse perspectives to the community. Two scholarships are available for 2018, each of which will cover up to $1,000 of registration and travel expenses. The application deadline is March 16th. Learn more.

LPC-AUPresses Cross-Pollination Registration Waivers

The Library Publishing Coalition and the Association of University Presses have teamed up this year to offer four registration waivers to our conferences (two for the Library Publishing Forum and two for the AUPresses Annual Meeting), designed to promote greater interconnectivity between our communities. The application deadline is March 1st. Learn more.

February 7, 2018

Opportunity for spring memberships for new LPC members

By Melanie Schlosser

Promotional image for the membership special

Thinking about applying for LPC membership for the 2018-19 membership year? Interested in starting your membership even earlier? The LPC membership year runs from July 1st to June 30th, and a flat fee of $2,000 is required for new memberships, regardless of when they are instated. Due to increased interest in LPC membership this year and the importance of the spring quarter for our community (the Library Publishing Forum, committee recruitment, and more), the Board has decided to offer new members a chance to start their memberships before July 1st. This membership “special” will cover April through June of this year, and the dues will be the equivalent of one quarter of the standard membership year dues. See below for details and email contact@librarypublishing.org with questions.

Criteria: As with all LPC memberships, this opportunity is open to academic and research libraries and library consortia who are engaged in or planning scholarly publishing activities.
Duration: April through June of 2018
Cost: $500
Benefits: New members will receive all standard membership benefits, including two discounted registrations to the Library Publishing Forum.
Renewal: As with all LPC memberships, the spring quarter memberships will be automatically renewed, and full membership dues ($2,000) will apply for the 2018-19 membership year.
How to apply: Fill out the application form available on our website.

February 7, 2018

Predatory publishing from a global south perspective

By Reggie Raju

The Fellows Journal is a forum for the current Library Publishing Coalition fellows to share their experiences and raise topics for discussion within the community. Learn more about the Fellowship Program

The unilateral determination of a definition of predatory publishing, by Jeffrey Beall, has sent the research publishing world into a tizz. Even though Beall has withdrawn his list, unfortunately in the current technological age this list is not cleared from the web archive nor is there a prevention of the rehashing of the list by someone else. Nor, has there been subsequently an adequate reconceptualization of predatory publishing to ensure that it is not discriminatory to open access or the global south.

Writing as a Fellow of the LPC from the global south, I feel a sense of obligation to follow the call that African academics and intellectuals (not that I am either), on the continent and in the diaspora, play a role in countering the prejudice and misinformation about Africa. Be that as it may, I think there are significant lessons for both the global south and north by interrogating the concept of predatory publishing. The recently published article by Olivarez and others (2018) highlight the need for interventions to remedy the insensitive generalization of predatory publishing. (more…)