Forum Info

March 25, 2025

Individual Session: May 7, 12:00-1:00

Day/time: May 7, 2025, 12:00 p.m. to 1 p.m. EDT

Title: A Global View on the Evolution of Open Book Publishing

Presenter: Zoe Wake Hyde (she/her),  OMP Coordinator, Public Knowledge Project

Description: This presentation explores global open book publishing trends, considering the movement to diversify how we define a ‘book’, an assessment of the book production software landscape, a map of developing support structures, and other insights informed by research conducted by the Public Knowledge Project (PKP) into use of Open Monograph Press (OMP). OMP, an open source tool developed by PKP and adopted by 400+ publishing initiatives globally to publish monographs, edited volumes and other kinds of long-form scholarship, has recently been subject to an in-depth strategic review to ensure responsiveness to community needs. While crucial to our collective knowledge, book publishing has seen a slower uptake of open practices than journal publishing, evident in the vast difference in adoption between OMP and PKP’s journal offering, Open Journal Systems (OJS), which supports 50,000+ journals worldwide. However, in line with their commitment to making research a public good, PKP is investing in support for open book publishing and growing our collective understanding of how knowledge creators worldwide are sharing all forms of long-form scholarship. Presenting case studies based on OMP users across North and South America, Europe, Asia and Africa, this session seeks to shine a light on how book publishing practices are evolving, how that is informing the next generation of book publishing infrastructures, and how library publishers can develop more book-oriented pathways to contribute to our collective knowledge, without the need to implement a traditional press structure.

Title: Beyond Journal Publishing: Adapting OJS for internal grant applications

Presenters:

• Priscilla Carmini (she/her), Digital Repositories Librarian, University of Waterloo
• Israel Cefrin (he/him), Information Technology Specialist / Developer, University of Waterloo

Description: Open Journal Systems (OJS) is a journal publishing system that has enabled scholars worldwide to share openly access scholarship outside of the confines of the traditional journal publishing landscape. The thoughtfully created review process, the array of plugins, and variety of customization options have allowed journals across all disciplines to facilitate a reading experience on their journal website that is unique to their brand. The adaptability of OJS has also allowed it to be developed for other use application use cases, including to facilitate the application of internal grants at post-secondary institutions.

In 2015, Israel Cefrin, the Information Technology Specialist/Developer, at the University of Waterloo, collaborated with a department of post graduate studies to develop a grant application process using OJS 2.0 for post graduate research grants at Universidade Estadual do Rio Grande do Sul (UERGS) in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Since transitioning to his role at the University of Waterloo, Israel Cefrin and Krista Godfrey, Head of Digital Initiatives, successfully piloted a grant application process using OJS 3.3 for an internal grant at the University of Waterloo called the Graham Seed Fund. During the 2024-2025 academic year, Priscilla Carmini, Digital Repositories Librarian, and Israel Cefrin have since added four more grants to the pilot, in addition to the Graham Seed Fund, and will likely expand the program further during the 2025-2026 term. During this session, the presenters will describe the lessons learned from the initial pilots, the development of the grant service, and the ways in which OJS can be adapted out of the box (i.e., no changes to core code) to support grant application processes.

Title: Taming the Beast: Leveraging A Large Scale Platform Migration for Strategic Program Goals

Presenters:

• Lisa Schiff (she/her), Associate Director, Publishing, Archives, and Digitization, California Digital Library, University of California
• Justin Gonder, Senior Product Manager, Publishing, California Digital Library, University of California

Description: The phrase “platform migration” can strike fear into the heart of any team, especially if the platform provides the complex workflows of journal manuscript management systems. CDL’s recent experience migrating its 90 eScholarship journals from OJS to Janeway, though no small task, ultimately converted that dread to enthusiasm! Facing a daunting migration scale, the team leaned on the time-honored strategy of running a pilot to manage complexity; we identified a small cohort of journals to work in close consultation with in order to surface any unidentified gaps in the new platform and our migration plan. We intended initially to follow this pilot with a refined, formulaic migration of the remaining journals, moving them to the new platform as quickly as possible. However, we discovered, in the course of the pilot, that this hands-on approach opened up all kinds of opportunities to more deeply engage with our editors and advance our publishing program in ways that have nothing to do with technical infrastructure. By extending our timeline and continuing with our original consultative strategy, we built stronger connections between journal editorial teams and eScholarship staff and made space for:

Securing participation by the editors in DEI training
Increasing adoption of CC licenses within our publications
Ensuring journal author agreements met our current practices and were being properly used

In this session, CDL staff will discuss our consultative journal migration strategy, tools, and templates, and the unanticipated, significant positive outcomes that this approach to platform migration enabled.

March 25, 2025

Panel Session: Removing barriers: how libraries and university presses collaborate to effect change

Day/time: May 7, 2025, 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. ETD

Title: Removing barriers: how libraries and university presses collaborate to effect change

Presenters:

• Jennie Collinson (she/her), Director of Sales & Marketing, Liverpool University Press
• Allison Levy (she/her), Director, Brown University Digital Publications
• Mary Rose Muccie (she/her), Executive Director/Scholarly Communications Officer, Temple University Press
• Jessica Fiorillo, Harvard Education Press (Moderator)

Description: Organized by the Association of University Presses (AUPresses) Library Relations
Committee, this session highlights successful collaborations between university presses and
libraries, showcasing the lasting impact they can have on the wider academic community.
Three case studies provide insight into how collaborative initiatives came to fruition, how
these partnerships have long-term benefits for both the libraries and the presses, and
ultimately how the initiatives contribute to a shared mission of removing barriers to the
publishing of research and the pursuit of knowledge.

There are presentations on:

• North Broad Press, a joint imprint from Temple University Press and the Temple University
  Library that publishes peer-reviewed open textbooks by Temple faculty.
• Trailblazers, a new open access initiative from Liverpool University Press that champions
  the often overlooked early-career researcher. Run in partnership with Lancaster University,
  University of Liverpool, and University of Salford (UK). AUPresses and the LPC are
  collaborating on the University Based Publishing Futures initiative – the Library Relations
  Committee is contributing to the advocacy work of that initiative through this session.
  Brown University Digital Publications, a Library-based born-digital publishing program
  that offers training workshops for HBCU scholars and library professionals seeking to gain
  expertise in developing open access born-digital scholarship.
• AUPresses and the LPC are collaborating on the University Based Publishing Futures
  initiative – the Library Relations Committee is contributing to the advocacy work of that
  initiative through this session.

March 25, 2025

Panel Session: Accessibility metadata: challenges and ways forward

Day/time: May 6, 2025, 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. EDT

Title: Accessibility metadata: challenges and ways forward

Presenters:

• Katherine Klosek, Director of Information Policy and Federal Relations, Association of Research Libraries (ARL)
• Julie Cardinal, retired Associate University librarian Cataloging and Metadata, Université de Montréal
• Katherine McColgan, Manager, Administration and Programs, Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL)
• Chris Oliver, Librarian Emeritus, University of Ottawa
• Victoria Owen, Information Policy Scholar-Practitioner, University of Toronto

Description: Metadata fields for accessible works are not standardized or even required, creating challenges for people with disabilities to find books or scholarly journals in accessible format or with accessibility features enabled. In this session, library metadata experts will share updates on international initiatives to improve accessibility metadata, including updated MARC fields; activities of the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) accessibility remediation metadata working group; related work of the IFLA network focused on developing best practices for recording accessibility metadata; and, examples of library publishing in Canada and the US. The panel will touch on how metadata requirements in the European Accessibility Act (EAA) might influence markets beyond those in the EU.

March 25, 2025

BOAF Session: Exploring the Landscape of Peer Review Models

Day/time: May 6, 2025, 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. EDT

Title: Exploring the Landscape of Peer Review Models

Presenters:

• Iliana Cosme-Brooks (she/her), Open Publishing Coordinator, Virginia Tech
• Corinne Guimont (she/her), Associate Director, Publishing and Digital Scholarship, Virginia Tech
• Patrick Tomlin (he/him), Associate Dean, Academic and Creative Engagement, Virginia Tech
• Cheryl Ball, Executive Director, Council of Editors of Learned Journals
• Eugenia Zuroski (she/they), Professor of English and Cultural Studies, McMaster University, President of CELJ
• Sarah Salter (she), Professor of Pedagogy, English Dept Emory University, Vice-President CELJ

Description: Peer review is often a crucial step in producing modern, rigorous scholarship and, therefore, carries a lot of weight within the publishing process. But as definitions, modalities, and topics of scholarship have evolved, new peer review models have been created and piloted to meet these changes. Understandably, many questions have emerged regarding the relationship between open access publishing and open peer review; how to conduct scholarly peer review for nontraditional digital scholarship; and the ethical implications of every peer review model.

This session will be a semi-structured discussion on the nuances of different peer review models—exploring perceptions and impacts of various models on the entire publishing process. Discussion topics will include:
A comparison of open vs. closed peer review models, especially how they impact multiply marginalized authors, “junior” and nontenured scholars, production costs and labor/capacity, compensation and credit, and consent.
“Hybridization” of peer review models—i.e., combining open and closed models— identifying what counts as “rigorous” and “scholarly,” and the various definitions of “open” and “closed.”
How to approach writing or adapting peer review models for nontraditional formats (e.g., digital humanities and multimedia publications).
Accessibility of the peer review process—how reviewers of different abilities can participate, especially if publications may not yet be fully accessible.
What policies do we have or could we develop as library publishers to support an evolving peer review landscape.

March 25, 2025

Active Session: Leveraging Student Expertise: Collaborating with Graduate Assistants to Publish Open Educational Resources

Day/time: Monday, May 5, 2025, 2:45 p.m. to 3:45 p.m. EDT

Title: Leveraging Student Expertise: Collaborating with Graduate Assistants to Publish Open Educational Resources

Presenters:

• Bailey Lake (she/her), Open Strategies Librarian, Eastern Kentucky University
• Kelly Smith (she/her), Director of Collections & Discovery, Eastern Kentucky University

Description: Graduate assistants (GAs) offer valuable expertise that can enhance open publishing initiatives while fostering their professional growth. In this session, we share our experience working with two GAs—one specializing in coding and another in editing—to develop high-quality, accessible Open Educational Resources (OER).

We will explore strategies for integrating GAs into OER projects that align their expertise with project goals, support institutional priorities, and address common challenges in open publishing workflows. Attendees will gain practical insights into training graduate assistants in OER, incorporating student labor into project management, and creating sustainable frameworks for collaboration that benefit both the students and the institution.

This session provides a roadmap for fostering impactful collaborations with GAs, empowering librarians to strengthen open publishing efforts and advance equitable access to knowledge.

March 25, 2025

Panel Session: A Student-Centered Approach: How to Build Inclusive and Effective Digital Publishing Teams

Day/time: May 6, 2025, 2:45 p.m. to 3:45 p.m.

Title: A Student-Centered Approach: How to Build Inclusive and Effective Digital Publishing Teams

Presenters:

• Lindsey R. Peterson (she/her), Digital Humanities Assistant Professor of Practice, University of South Dakota
• Mariah Cosens (she/her), CWRGM Researcher and History MA student, University of South Dakota
• Alessandra Diaz (she/her), CWRGM Researcher and History BA student, Columbia University
• Amiracle Funches (she/her), BA, History, CWRGM Researcher and Historic Objects Collections Cataloger
• Amanda Patrick (she/her), MLIS, CWRGM Researcher, University of Southern Mississippi

Description: Incorporating student labor in library publishing projects presents challenges, such as the significant time commitment required to train students with little to no prior experience. Yet, well-structured university publishing programs that are responsive to student needs demonstrate that student involvement can be highly rewarding for both the project and students’ professional development.

Since its inception in 2019, the Civil War & Reconstruction Governors of Mississippi project (CWRGM) has trained over 60 student researchers and editors in skills essential to digital publishing. Funded by the NHPRC and NEH, CWRGM is publishing more than 20,000 Civil War and Reconstruction-era documents from Mississippi’s governors’ offices with high-resolution images, metadata, transcriptions, and annotations at cwrgm.org. To accomplish this goal, CWRGM assembled a dynamic team of student researchers from across the nation who are at various stages in their careers.

The proposed panel features five student researchers and editors—including one now serving as project co-director—who have worked on CWRGM’s metadata, transcription, and annotation teams. Drawing on their experiences, panelists will discuss strategies for recruiting students from diverse academic and personal backgrounds, structuring project workflows to accommodate students’ varied schedules and commitments, and addressing challenges such as high turnover.

Panelists will also highlight ways to empower students by aligning project tasks with their career aspirations, providing meaningful skill development opportunities, and mentoring them to leverage their project experience into future academic and professional roles. Additionally, the panel will address methods for using anti-racist and reparative editing strategies for creating a supportive and inclusive work environment where students feel valued and motivated.

By centering student rather than faculty voices, this panel offers actionable and reproducible strategies for digital publishing projects with research initiatives and student training platforms. Together the panelists demonstrate how editorial projects can prepare the next generation of publishing professionals while advancing the accessibility of historical resources.

March 25, 2025

Individual Session: May 6, 12:00-1:00

Day/time: May 6, 2025, 12:00 to 1:00 p.m.

This session includes two individual 15-minute presentations and three 2- to 3-minute lightning talks.

Title: Overdue Knowledge: Teaching & Learning via Student-led Journals in the Library

Presenter: Rebecca Wojturska (she/her), Open Access Publishing Officer, University of Edinburgh

Description: Academic publishing is an area often associated with a lack of transparency. What goes on behind the scenes and how does publishing really work? One of the many merits to Open Access is not only opening up research but the practices that make it possible. Embedding this knowledge from undergraduate level has the potential to help students flourish when it comes to approaching academia or publishing as a career path. But how can librarians help?

Edinburgh Diamond, situated within Edinburgh University Library, provides free publishing services to academics, staff and students of the University of Edinburgh who wish to publish their own Diamond Open Access books and journals. The service currently has eight journals that are led by student-groups across the University, showcasing a variety of research from internal students as well as researchers of all levels worldwide. Edinburgh Diamond aims to grow this offering to increase publishing transparency and to equip students with skills and knowledge in academic publishing, including: launching a journal, managing workflow, facilitating peer-review, coordinating submissions, understanding editorial, production, marketing and promotion processes, and the importance of indexing, metadata and discoverability.

This presentation will demonstrate how the service aims to engage with students to develop their understanding and practical application of publishing knowledge, as well as how the process of running their own journal enhances the learning experience. Furthermore, this presentation will look at Edinburgh Diamond’s history and growth of student-led publishing, highlight student feedback, and share plans for the future.

Title: Building Bridges between Publishing and Teaching

Presenter: Gabriela Mircea (she/her), Digital Project Librarian, University of Calgary

Description: A few years ago, I attended the Libraries as Publishers: Building a Global Community, a two-day satellite pre-conference held in advance of IFLA’s World Library and Information Congress. I recall some presentations demonstrating how close the librarians were working with students and faculty to incorporate journal publishing within courses. Ever since that event, I have been intrigued by the idea, and I wanted to learn more about the library’s role in incorporating journal publishing into education.

In 2022, while on research leave at McMaster University, I set out to examine the level of support from academic libraries in incorporating journal publishing in teaching. In this context, I looked at the similarities and differences between the U15 Group of Canadian Research Universities, Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) libraries in Canada, and between CARL libraries in Canada and Association of Research Libraries (ARL) libraries from the US.

The initial work was focused on building and refining the research instrument. I used a mixed-method study that provided sufficient depth of detail to gather relevant data for the research topic. To collect the data, I used a survey. The questionnaire included questions about staffing, maturity of publishing services, number of hosted journals, level of instructional, technical, and production support, service level agreements, policies and workflows, level of participation in journal publishing instruction by library staff and/or assisting faculty to incorporate journal publishing into teaching. Follow-up questions captured information on documentation, course framework, and syllabus.
The presentation will share key findings on how libraries integrate journal publishing in education.

Title: Undergraduate Journal Workflows Project

Presenter: Christopher A. Barnes (he/him), Assistant Professor and Digital Publishing Librarian, Adelphi University

Description: Academic librarians are frequently asked to support and publish student-led journals featuring undergraduate scholarship. Student editors and faculty advisors look to library publishers for guidance on all aspects of the publishing process, from developing policies and selecting platforms to organizing the review process and production workflow. By following the example of professional scholarly journals, these undergraduate journals can provide students with educational experience as editors, peer reviewers, and authors of peer-reviewed publications.

As closely as these student journals model themselves on their professional counterparts, however, they are necessarily different by virtue of their undergraduate leaders and authors. New editors must be found and trained to replace those who graduate, for example, and graded coursework should be prioritized over involvement with an extracurricular publication. Furthermore, faculty members must find time to help and advise on a myriad of issues, often at the busiest times of their year. Finally, the educational purpose of the journal must not be lost in the effort to edit and publish the next issue, meaning that more time must be allotted to student authors, editors, and peer reviewers as well as the faculty and staff members who advise them. Successfully supporting and publishing an undergraduate journal on a regular schedule year after year is therefore one of the more difficult responsibilities a library publisher can face.

The undergraduate journal publishing workflows project is aimed at better understanding how successful journals are organized and published with the support of academic librarians. Inspired by the Library Publishing Workflows project, the goal will be to analyze and diagram the responsibilities, schedules, and internal policies that have enabled a variety of undergraduate journals to operate successfully for multiple years. This presentation will offer an overview of the initial stages of the project and solicit library publishers who would like to participate.

Title: Open Access to Publicly Funded Research in China: Policies, Platforms, and Accessibility

Presenter: Feng Yang (he), Professor, Sichuan University

Description: Funding agencies for various types of scientific research, as key stakeholders in the management, decision-making, and allocation of public funds, hope to ensure that research outcomes have a “public” nature. On the other hand, the continuous accumulation of public funds and the growing number of research outcomes have led to an increasing demand from the public for access to and utilization of these results. Therefore, open access to research outcomes funded by public funds is an important way to unlock the potential of research results and a key safeguard for social innovation and development. In China, public funding for scientific research is a crucial means by which society generates knowledge, shares knowledge, and promotes social development. This also gives public institutions the authority to impose funding conditions that require researchers to fulfill corresponding obligations. How are these policies regulated? In order to safeguard the public’s right and ability to access and utilize research outcomes supported by public funding, which public institutions in China are currently constructing open access platforms? What are the specific circumstances of these public institutions in the practice of implementing open access policies for research outcomes? How is accessibility ensured?

Title: An Ultra-Brief Look at Aperio’s Platform Migration

Presenter: Dave S. Ghamandi (he/him), Open Publishing Librarian and Managing Editor, Aperio, University of Virginia

Description: Since our 2019 Library Publishing Forum presentation where we first outlined our new press, Aperio has gone through some significant changes. We recently switched our service provider from Ubiquity Press to Fulcrum. Our journal program remains our main focus, and it is now powered by Janeway (via Fulcrum’s contract). This presentation will briefly explore some of the reasons why Aperio migrated, challenges faced, and benefits gained.

This presentation is done with a spirit of solidarity and to report back to the community from where much has been drawn over the years. Attendees considering migrations are encouraged to follow up with Aperio staff for continued conversation.

March 25, 2025

BOAF Session: Looking at Accessibility and Archiving of Open Access Books – A Copim Open Book Futures Workshop

Day/time: May 6, 2025, 12:00 p.m. to 1 p.m. EDT

Title: Looking at Accessibility and Archiving of Open Access Books – A Copim Open Book Futures Workshop

Presenters:

• Gareth Cole, Loughborough University Library
• Joanne Fitzpatrick, Lancaster University Library
• Dr Rupert Gatti,O pen Book Publishers, Thoth Open Metadata, Cambridge University

Description: One of the Copim Open Book Futures project’s core tenets is embracing open infrastructures and community led-initiatives. Open Book Futures is all about how to scale and deepen the impact of community-led initiatives working to deliver a sustainable, equitable and bibliodiverse future for OA book publishing.

Our proposed session will take a closer look into the interconnected worlds of Archiving and Accessibility for open access books. We would like to invite discussion around how we can collectively work to ensure that open access content remains freely accessible in the long term. We are keen to hear about the challenges, requirements and practicalities participants have experienced at their institutions. We also want to hear about experiences with accessibility requirements for open access content, responses to changes in national and international legislation over accessibility and digital content, to then collaboratively explore how these might be met through publishing workflows.

Following a brief introduction into our work on Archiving and Accessibility, we invite participants to share their opinions, specific needs, expertise and concerns around archiving and accessibility. We hope for these conversations to be informative for participants, as they will learn about current activities as well as issues faced by other participants, and will also help the team with their work on developing new tools, shape technical protocols and share good practices for open access publishing, so that publishers can help to meet the needs of their readers.

The session will be structured around two core themes, each representing a critical pillar of the OA book publishing ecosystem: 1) Archiving and Preservation: Safeguarding the Legacy of Open Access; and 2) Accessibility: Ensuring Inclusivity and Equity in Open Access. Each theme will be introduced by short presentations by one of our experts, followed by the opportunity to engage in direct knowledge exchange.

March 25, 2025

BOAF Session: Structuring Library Publishing Programs One Step At A Time

Day/time: May 6, 2025, 1:15 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. EDT

Title: Structuring Library Publishing Programs One Step At A Time

Presenter: Jordan Pedersen (she/her), Research & Scholarship Librarian, University of Guelph

Description: Are you starting a library publishing program, refreshing a program that needs some care and attention, or amalgamating and cutting services? Developing a structure can result in easier maintenance and promotion of services, better alignment between goals and outcomes, and can surface concerns (and responses) to questions of equity and accessibility. This session will cover some of questions you should consider, and will provide sample documentation and checklists for structuring a publishing program.

The session will take the format of a world-café, with 3 rounds of breakout groups to give participants a chance to approach the topics that are the most interesting or relevant to them. These discussions will be summarized in a collaborative document.

Sample topics for the breakout groups may include:
• Scoping publishing services: who is involved and what is included
• Documentation: developing and maintaining admin guides, policies and procedures
• Outreach and user relations: getting the word out, creating service agreements, celebrating successes
• Accessibility in publishing programs: legal requirements and moral obligations
• Partnerships and connectivity: who do you want to work with, indexing, standards, and more!

This session builds off recent work at the University of Guelph to develop sustainable services.

March 25, 2025

Active Session: Open Access, Open Metadata, Open Archiving: How to Liberate Metadata Flows across the OA Landscape

Day/time: May 6, 2025, 1:15 p.m. to 2:15 p.m.

Title: Open Access, Open Metadata, Open Archiving: How to Liberate Metadata Flows across the OA Landscape

Presenters:

• Toby Steiner (he/his), COO, Thoth Open Metadata
• Vincent van Gerven Oei, punctum books & Thoth Open Metadata
• Hannah Hillen, Thoth Open Metadata

Description: Now that open access is rapidly becoming the mainstream mode of publishing scholarly publications, including monographs and edited collections, integrating open metadata management into book production workflows, library cataloging systems, and long-term archiving solutions is gaining importance and urgency.

This workshop will seek to showcase the metadata workflows of a sample of open access library and university publishers from across the globe – including presses from the Netherlands, the UK, the US, Latin America, and Africa – through the usage of Thoth Open Metadata (https://thoth.pub/), a non-profit open source and community-led platform providing innovative metadata management and distribution solutions tailored to tackle the problems of getting open access books and chapters into the book supply chain, ensuring their long-term discoverability, sustainability and accessibility.

We show how fully open and reusable metadata (released under a CC0 dedication) are ingested, managed, and then exported and disseminated to a variety of platforms including, but not limited to, OAPEN, DOAB, the Open Book Collective, JSTOR, and Project MUSE; how DOIs get auto-registered with Crossref for books and chapters alike; and how publications are automatically archived in open repositories such as the Internet Archive and Zenodo through the Thoth Open Archiving Network, a novel, open, transparent and auditable alternative to existing long-term preservation mechanisms.

Following an introductory presentation of these open workflows, we would like to engage participants in an open discussion of the topics raised to learn more about attendants’ backgrounds, needs, and recommendations – with an aim to scope applicability of the proposed workflows to different national contexts and corresponding specificities.