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March 25, 2026

BOAF: What Works at Scale? A Conversation on Consortial Library Publishing

Day/Time/Room
June 18, 2026 | 3:45 p.m. to 4:45 p.m. | HUB 250

Title: What Works at Scale? A Conversation on Consortial Library Publishing

Presenters:

Jessica Kirschner, she/her, Digital Publishing Coordinator, VIVA, Virginia’s Academic Library Consortium
Amanda Hurford, she/her, Scholarly Communications Director, PALNI

Description: Consortial programs arise when higher education institutions seize opportunities to operate at scale to better serve their faculty, students, and communities. Whether by delivering cost savings or leveraging shared resources, technology, and infrastructure, consortia offer opportunities to do more together. Also, emerging from a desire to serve their institutional communities, library publishing programs seem like a natural fit for consortia to operate at scale through shared resources, technology, and infrastructure. But has this occurred in practice?

This birds of a feather session uses the results of survey of consortial publishing efforts as a starting point of conversation with those who are publishing at a consortial scale, whether central office staff or those partnering with consortia to publish. We will consider:
–What seems to work for your consortia and how can others learn from you?
–What hurdles emerge from offering publishing services at scale? Are there any tensions between the expectations/needs/values of the various institutions you serve?
–How do you make sure you serve all of your institutions, not just those that are well resourced? How do you make sure that you are reaching and interacting with underserved institutions?
–What aspects seem most valued by consortial members (staffing, money, technology, other infrastructure)?
–Are there ways that consortia can work together to operate at a larger scale?
–Is there need for a separate group for communication of consortia involved in publishing?

We hope to leave the session with an action plan for both individual consortia but also potentially organize a community of practice across US consortia.

While the session is aimed at consortial publishers, those who are interested in building capacity for publishing at scale are also welcome to join the discussion.

March 25, 2026

FULL SESSION: From Librarians to Authors: Revising Pub101 to Expand Open Publishing Support

Day/Time/Room
June 18, 2026 | 3:45 p.m. to 4:45 p.m. | North Ballroom

Title: From Librarians to Authors: Revising Pub101 to Expand Open Publishing Support

Presenters:

Karen Lauritsen, she, her, hers, Senior Director – Publishing, Open Education Network
Amanda Larson, AERI Program Coordinator, The Ohio State University, she, her, hers

Description: In the spring of 2026, the Open Education Network offered Pub101 for Authors for the first time. An adaptation of Pub101, an informal and popular orientation to open textbook publishing for librarians and project managers, Pub101 for Authors was designed to support potential authors who may not have local publishing support, as well as be a building block for librarians who may appreciate infrastructure to scale their program. Using community input from Open Education Network Tea Times and a hands-on 2024 Library Publishing Forum session, the Pub101 Committee adapted the existing open curriculum for an author audience, and identified guest presenters to speak to curricular themes and share their experiences. In this session, we’ll talk about how the adaptation process worked, including how we chose to integrate generative AI considerations into the curriculum, and reflect on the eight hosted synchronous sessions. We’ll talk about what went well, what we plan to revise, and discuss plans for the future. As part of that reflection, we will invite feedback and suggestions for how we can continue to improve and support the OER publishing community.

March 25, 2026

HANDS ON: Measure What Matters: A Workshop on Developing Rubrics for Journal Evaluation and Growth

Day/Time/Room
June 18, 2026 | 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. | HUB 250

Title: Measure What Matters: A Workshop on Developing Rubrics for Journal Evaluation and Growth

Presenters:

Justin Gonder, Senior Product Manager, Publishing, California Digital Library
Charlotte Roh (she/her) Publications Manager, California Digital Library
Amanda Karby, Publications Manager, California Digital Library

Description: Library publishers often exist in a liminal space between “technical host” and “strategic publisher.” For years, eScholarship operated largely in the former category – providing platforming for important niche scholarship but lacking the mechanisms to encourage adoption of professional standards. We now recognize that this passive model was ultimately a disservice to our editors, authors, and readers: without adhering to transparent, community-established standards, journals risk being less discoverable, less relevant, and less likely to achieve sustainable funding.

To bridge this gap, eScholarship has, in the past several years, pivoted to a proactive, standards-based approach. In 2025, drawing on the JPPS framework, DOAJ criteria, and COPE guidelines, we developed a suite of evaluation rubrics to assess new journal proposals, audit existing journals, and measure the overall health of our own publishing program. These tools have allowed us to replace subjective “gut feeling” decision-making with more objective, transparent, and equitable processes, ensuring our limited resources are invested where they make the most impact.

This session offers a replicable framework for similarly professionalizing library publishing portfolios. After presenting our methodology and results, we will review the 3 rubrics in detail before shifting to a hands-on workshop. Attendees will receive modifiable rubric templates and work in small, host-facilitated groups to discuss how adapting these standards to their own local contexts could move us collectively towards a shared model of quality and accountability in library-based publishing.

March 25, 2026

FULL SESSION: We Make the Rules: Rewriting Norms in Library-Based Journal Publishing

Day/Time/Room
June 17, 2026 | 11:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. | HUB 250

Title: We Make the Rules: Rewriting Norms in Library-Based Journal Publishing

Presenters:

Amanda Larson, AERI Program Coordinator, She, Her, Hers, The Ohio State University
Kristina Clement, Assistant Director of Academic Engagement and Instruction, Collegiate Librarians, Kennesaw State University, she, her, hers
Chelsee Dickson, Assistant Director of Academic Engagement and Instruction, Scholarly Publishing & Research, Kennesaw State University, she, her, hers
Sabrina Davis, Access & User Services Librarian, Texas Tech University, she, her, hers

Description: Academic journals are foundational infrastructure for emerging scholarly fields, yet launching and sustaining one within a library publishing context presents unique operational, staffing, and governance challenges. This session presents a detailed case study of the Journal of Open Educational Resources in Higher Education (JOERHE), tracing its evolution from a three-person passion project to a structured, values-guided publishing initiative with a robust editorial and production ecosystem.

In this session, we outline the processes and scaffolding that have supported JOERHE’s growth, including: establishing governance roles and workflows; recruiting and training editorial and production staff; defining quality assurance checkpoints; implementing publication platforms and tooling; and crafting documentation for consistency and onboarding. We’ll share practical metrics and milestones, such as editorial turnaround times, role definitions, and staffing transitions, to illustrate how operational choices impact sustainability.

Attendees will gain insights into balancing volunteer contributions with structured responsibilities, aligning journal values with operational practices, and leveraging library publishing resources to support emerging scholars. We’ll also discuss how we manage cross-institutional collaboration, inclusive recruitment practices, and capacity building for early-career contributors interested in editorial participation.

By focusing on what it takes to manage and grow a library-supported journal, this session offers actionable guidance for academic libraries, library publishing programs, and collaborative publishing initiatives seeking to launch, refine, or scale their own journals. Participants will leave with concrete strategies and templates to help them operationalize editorial standards, build resilient workflows, and support community participation in scholarly publishing.

March 25, 2026

HANDS ON: Unearthing Diamond OA: Mapping U.S. Diamond Open Access Publishing

Day/Time/Room
June 17, 2026 | 1:15 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. | North Ballroom

Title: Unearthing Diamond OA: Mapping U.S. Diamond Open Access Publishing

Presenters:

Sharla Lair, Lyrasis
Catherine Mitchell, she/her, Director of Publishing, Archives, and Digitization, California Digital Library
Emily Goff, she/her, President, Goff Group LLC
Kate McCready, she/her, Program Director for Open Publishing, Big Ten Academic Alliance

Description: This session is part of the Gates Foundation funded project, Mapping Diamond Open Access Journals: A Nationwide Study of the U.S. Scholarly Publishing Landscape, conducted by Lyrasis, the Big Ten Academic Alliance Center for Library Programs, and the California Digital Library, with assessment support from Goff Group LLC. The project seeks to generate a comprehensive understanding of the U.S. Diamond Open Access (OA) publishing ecosystem to strengthen non-commercial scholarly communication and mobilize stakeholders for investment, infrastructure, and policy guidance. A central component of the project is a national survey of Diamond OA publishers, complemented by interviews and focus groups, to better understand who is publishing Diamond OA journals, how this work is organized and resourced, and where key challenges and opportunities lie.

In this interactive session, we will share a preview of preliminary survey results, inviting library publishers, the core constituency for this project, to engage in the early stages of meaning making of the data. Participants will be asked to reflect on whether the findings align with lived experience, what feels missing or mischaracterized, and what additional questions or areas of focus should shape the next phase of the project. Feedback from the library publishing community is essential for validating findings, identifying gaps, and ensuring the project reflects community priorities.

Facilitated discussion will allow attendees to share needs, highlight challenges and successes, and explore what forms of support would most meaningfully strengthen Diamond OA journal publishing. Participants will engage directly with project team members, contributing insights that surveys alone cannot capture and helping guide subsequent analysis and project directions.

March 25, 2026

HANDS ON: Mapping the Research Nexus: A Hands-on Guide to Retrieving Relationship Metadata

Day/Time/Room
June 18, 2026 | 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. | HUB 250

Title: Mapping the Research Nexus: A Hands-on Guide to Retrieving Relationship Metadata

Presenters:

Shayn Smulyan (he/him), Technical Support Specialist, Crossref
Jason Portenoy (he/him), Data Scientist, Crossref

Description: Scholarly publication metadata is scattered across multiple platforms, but can be linked together to gain a more complete understanding of research networks and research outputs. This workshop provides practical skills for systematically collecting metadata from the Crossref, ROR, and ORCID APIs. Participants will work with customizable code notebooks, learning to navigate API documentation, configure authentication credentials, and execute requests to retrieve relational metadata relevant to their publications, institutions, and authors.

March 25, 2026

FULL SESSION: Introducing Digital Press Plus: A Press/Vendor Collaboration for Supplementary Teaching Materials

Day/Time/Room
June 18, 2026 | 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. | North Ballroom

Title: Introducing Digital Press Plus: A Press/Vendor Collaboration for Supplementary Teaching Materials

Presenters:

Harrison W. Inefuku, Digital Press Lead, Iowa State University
Andy Byers, Director of Publishing Technology, Birkbeck University of London
Abbey K. Elder, she/they, Open Education Services Librarian, Iowa State University

Description: Many downstream users of open educational resources (OER) have concerns about the availability of supplemental materials such as presentation slides, homework, and lecture notes. Authors can make these materials available in several ways; however, many of the solutions commonly used obfuscate the availability of materials or put undue pressure on authors. In this presentation, we introduce Digital Press +, a repository that houses supplemental materials for books published by the Digital Press, a publishing unit housed in the Iowa State University Library.

The Digital Press+, funded by Iowa State University’s Course Affordability Jump Start Initiative, was developed in partnership with the technology developers at the Open Library of Humanities alongside several updates to the team’s Books plug-in. The project connects content in the Digital Press’ repository plug-in to the materials in their books catalog, allowing the simple cross-linking of connected materials. This also allows for external submissions, which can facilitate the sharing of new materials to supplement and support previously published OER.

The collaborators who worked on the development of this project will share how the Digital Press + utilizes the capabilities of the linked repository and books plug-ins for the publication of OER. For others interested in supporting open source development projects like this one, the presenters will share the process by which the team got grant funding for their work, the steps it took to develop the project, and other potential use cases of OLH’s repository plug-in for library publishers.

March 25, 2026

FULL SESSION: From Growing Pains to Sustainability: Proven Strategies for Maturing Library & OER Publishing Programs

Day/Time/Room
June 18, 2026 |9:45 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. | HUB 214

Title: From Growing Pains to Sustainability: Proven Strategies for Maturing Library & OER Publishing Programs

Presenters:

Lauren Ray, they/them, Open Education Librarian at University of Washington Libraries, University of Washington
Kate McNally Carter, Coordinator of Open Education Services, University of Houston Libraries
Pamela Herrington-Moriarty, Alamo Colleges District
Steel Wagstaff, Customer Experience Lead, Pressbooks

Description: As library-based publishing and OER programs mature, they encounter a predictable set of operational, technical, and strategic challenges that are often under-discussed until they arise. This panel brings together representatives from several institutions who have navigated common “growing pains” and developed sustainable strategies to strengthen their publishing programs over time. Panelists will share real-world approaches to issues such as supporting authors who start but do not complete projects; managing user accounts and contributor turnover; planning for new editions and post-grant sustainability; establishing or refining peer-review, copyediting, and accessibility workflows; and responsibly stewarding student-authored open pedagogy publications.

Panelists will also discuss challenges that emerge as publishing programs mature, including supporting faculty who have limited time or digital publishing experience; coordinating multi-step pre-publication editorial processes; maintaining consistent metadata and licensing practices; ensuring accessibility compliance at scale; supporting teaching & learning initiatives and improving student success; and marketing and promoting successful publications. Examples may include implementing structured author onboarding, developing editorial style guidelines, introducing checklists or QA workflows, integrating analytics to monitor impact, incorporating formative assessment opportunities directly into teaching and learning material, and achieving tighter integration between published content with an institution’s learning management system.

The session will be structured as a panel discussion with panelists discussing specific challenges, followed by concrete demonstrations of strategies, workflows, and tools they’ve adopted to address the challenge. Solutions will encompass a range of ongoing approaches, including the creation or adoption of policies, workflows, training and development opportunities, and software tools (including Pressbooks) that have enabled library publishers to better accomplish their key priorities. The session will include a moderated discussion and audience Q&A, giving attendees the opportunity to reflect on lessons learned, share their own experiences, and explore how these strategies can be applied in their own institutions.

March 25, 2026

BOAF: From Practice to Profession: Advancing Open Education’s Place in Scholarly Publishing and Academic Recognition

Day/Time/Room
June 18, 2026 |9:45 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. | HUB 250

Title: From Practice to Profession: Advancing Open Education’s Place in Scholarly Publishing and Academic Recognition

Presenters:

Amanda Larson, AERI Program Coordinator, She, Her, Hers, The Ohio State University
Chelsee Dickson, Assistant Director of Academic Engagement and Instruction, Scholarly Publishing & Research, Kennesaw State University, she, her, hers

Description: Open education work—particularly where it intersects with library publishing, open access, OER creation, and open pedagogy—plays an increasingly visible role in how libraries support teaching, learning, and scholarly communication. While this work is widely valued, approaches to describing, supporting, and recognizing open education roles and contributions vary across institutions and contexts.

This Birds-of-a-Feather session will bring together library publishers, open education practitioners, scholars, and collaborators for an informal, facilitated conversation about how open education work is understood, supported, and sustained within library publishing ecosystems. The first portion of the session will focus on surfacing how participants currently navigate recognition and legitimacy for open education work within existing institutional and professional structures, drawing on lived experience in their professional roles.

The second half of the session will turn toward collective reflection and possibility. Participants will discuss what it could look like for professional communities and groups like the emerging Open Education Association to serve as convening spaces for shared learning, visibility, and coordination. Rather than proposing fixed frameworks, the conversation will center on identifying common values, open questions, and areas where collaboration could help professionalize the field of open education in relation to open publishing.

The session will be guided by structured prompts, group discussion, and a Padlet facilitating collective note-taking to highlight themes, tensions, and opportunities. Participants will leave with a clearer understanding of how peers across the library publishing and open education communities are approaching professional recognition in open publishing, as well as a shared set of questions, considerations, and conversation starters that can inform future collaboration at local, regional, and national levels.

March 25, 2026

BOAF: The Contract as Compliance: Negotiating Privacy and Accessibility in Library Publishing

Day/Time/Room
June 17, 2026 | 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. | HUB 214

Title: The Contract as Compliance: Negotiating Privacy and Accessibility in Library Publishing [slides]

Presenters:

Ellen Dubinsky (she/her), Scholarly Communication Librarian, University of Arizona
Michele Gibney (she/her), Visiting Program Officer – Privacy & Surveillance, SPARC / Head of Publishing and Scholarship Support, University of the Pacific

Description: Library publishers are responsible for more than just the content we publish; we are responsible for the containers we put it in. While we champion Open Access, the infrastructure we lease from vendors often undermines the values we claim to uphold.

Consider the reality of our vendor platforms: You can have perfectly accessible PDFs, but if a blind author cannot navigate the submission dashboard, your program is exclusionary. Similarly, you can remove the financial paywall for your readers, but if your vendor replaces it with a surveillance dragnet, you haven’t made the research free—you’ve just changed the currency.

The commercial surveillance of user data in academic systems continues to grow unchecked. The April 2026 Department of Justice (DOJ) deadline for WCAG 2.1 AA compliance has passed, leaving libraries to face legal liability for the accessibility of these third-party platforms. We cannot code our way out of these problems; we must negotiate our way out.

This session frames the license agreement as the library’s and library publisher’s most powerful tool for enforcing equity. We will present SPARC’s work on privacy contract negotiation alongside an initial landscape analysis of accessibility clauses. Participants will discuss how to move beyond checking the Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) to demanding binding contract language that protects user data and ensures legal compliance. Join us to strategize how we can hold our infrastructure vendors accountable to our values and the law.