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FULL SESSION: Sustaining Scholarly Texts: A Collaborative Approach to TEI Publishing

Day/Time/Room
June 17, 2026 | 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. | HUB 250

Title: Sustaining Scholarly Texts: A Collaborative Approach to TEI Publishing

Presenters:

• Anna Siebach-Larsen, She/Her, Director, Rossell Hope Robbins Library and Koller-Collins Center for English Studies, University of Rochester
• Chad Nelson, Technical Team Manager, California Digital Library, University of California
• Zach Davis, Partner, Cast Iron Coding; Dana Johnson, Frontend Team Lead, Cast Iron Coding

Description: TEI is a mature technology for encoding scholarly texts, but publishing those texts on the web in a sustainable, maintainable way can be challenging. Projects invest significant effort in encoding content, only to find that rendering and long-term maintenance present their own set of problems. And while XSLT has long been the default tool for TEI transformation, it comes with tradeoffs—browser support is being deprecated, the learning curve is steep, and many projects find themselves maintaining bespoke pipelines that are difficult to update or hand off to new staff.

When the University of Rochester’s Rossell Hope Robbins Library received NEH funding to modernize the Middle English Text Series (METS), the goal was straightforward: replace an aging Drupal site with something modern and sustainable. What emerged was a modern alternative to XSLT-based rendering: a Rails GraphQL API with a React frontend that harvests TEI documents, normalizes them, and renders them in a responsive web reader. The same TEI files also flow to InDesign for print production, giving Rochester a true single-source publishing pipeline.

A year later, the California Digital Library faced a related problem. They had nearly 1,900 UC Press e-books encoded in TEI, but the in-house system used to render them had become difficult to maintain. Standard XSLT transformation tools proved unworkable for their collection. But the parsing engine developed for Rochester offered a path forward. CDL commissioned an adaptation to convert their TEI into static, sustainable HTML, a concrete example of library publishers building on each other’s investments.

This panel brings together the library publishers and developers behind both projects to discuss the promises and pain points of TEI-based publishing. We’ll share practical lessons on building modern TEI pipelines and reflect on how grant-funded infrastructure can benefit institutions beyond the original project.

HANDS ON: Altered State Publishing: Workshop on Designing Workflows for Alternative Publishing

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

Title: Altered State Publishing: Workshop on Designing Workflows for Alternative Publishing

Presenters:

• Mackenzie Salisbury, (she/her) Curriculum Innovation Librarian, Northwestern University
• Basia Kapolka, (she/they), Digital Humanities Librarian, Northwestern University

Description: Library publishers have developed robust workflows for digital journals and open educational resources (OER). Yet, the vast majority of our physical collections remain static, “finished” products of a traditional, often exclusionary canon. While critical pedagogy encourages students to “remix” and “intervene” in these texts, libraries lack the publishing infrastructure to legitimize and preserve these physical interventions.

This workshop proposes a new model: “Guerilla Publishing.” In this model, libraries do not just host finished books; they act as platforms for student-authored “tipped-in” pages, marginalia, and physical inserts that critique or expand the existing collection, utilizing weeded, discarded, or non-library books. Since this model challenges standard library operations, this session functions as a design charrette. Participants will work collaboratively to blueprint the infrastructure required to turn “student projects” into a “published record.”

We will allow attendees to self select into one of two core operational hurdles to engage with:
1. The Policy Layer: How do we distinguish between “defacement” and “enrichment”? We will draft a “Statement of Participatory Stewardship.”

2. The Metadata Layer: How can cataloging workflows be adapted (e.g., local notes, 590 fields, linked digital surrogates) to make ephemeral student contributions discoverable?

Participants will leave with a collaborative “Guerilla Publishing Toolkit”—a draft framework for managing student-authored physical interventions in their own libraries. This session bridges the gap between critical library instruction and the operational realities of library publishing.

BOAF: Getting Up to Speed with Journal Hosting in the Library

Day/Time/Room
June 17, 2026 | 1:15 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. | HUB 214

Title: Getting Up to Speed with Journal Hosting in the Library

Presenter: Nancy Foasberg, she/her, Scholarly Communication Librarian, Villanova University

Description: Library publishing often relies on librarians taking on journal “hosting” or publishing roles, despite having little experience with publishing. Key to this role is working with editors, who may also be new to the “back end” of publishing. Whether nurturing a collection of existing journals, or guiding a new journal toward its first issue, it can be challenging to build relationships with editors, understand the needs of the journals, and build the necessary skills. As a librarian who is still relatively new to library publishing, I am interested in the practices, ideas, and challenges of others who are working with similar programs.

The session will be a semi-structured discussion intended to provide librarians an opportunity to ask questions and share strategies. Likely discussion topics include:
• Strategies for communicating with editors and understanding their needs
• Identifying and prioritizing useful library interventions (some possibilities: indexing, preservation, and accessibility)
• Resources and strategies for learning about publishing
• Decision making around taking on new journals
• Development of policies to guide this work
In order to help attendees turn this conversation into action, we will use a notes document to gather suggestions and resources.

HANDS ON: Constructive Conversations with Authors

Day/Time/Room
June 17, 2026 | 1:15 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. | HUB 250

Title: Constructive Conversations with Authors

Presenters:

• Angela Watters (she/her), Digital Publishing Specialist, Illinois Open Publishing Network, University Library, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
• Corinne Guimont (she/her), Director of Virginia Tech Publishing and Press

Description: Working with authors can be a rewarding, complex, and sometimes frustrating process. Expectations can vary, emotions can run high, and communication can be misinterpreted. How can publishing professionals more effectively provide and receive constructive feedback to facilitate meaningful conversations? In 2024, Angela Watters and Corinne Guimont were assigned as peer mentors through the LPC Peer Mentor program and through our conversations we shared our experiences working with complex projects and authors and the strategies we took to navigate these situations.

In this workshop, we plan to share some of our strategies within the framework from the books Crucial Conversations and Thanks for the Feedback. We will examine the three types of feedback (appreciation, coaching, and evaluation) and how to both give and receive feedback especially when the stakes are high, opinions vary, and emotions are strong (as is often the case when working with an author who is sharing work they have been committed to for several years). We will share the general frameworks and ideas presented by the two books and then provide publishing specific scenarios for attendees to discuss in small groups and then share back to the larger group. We will also provide time for attendees to share their own experiences and strategies for navigating complex, yet constructive, conversations with authors.

FULL SESSION: Libraries and Publishers in Support of Black and Indigenous Voices

Day/Time/Room
June 17, 2026 | 11:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. | HUB 214

Title: Libraries and Publishers in Support of Black and Indigenous Voices

Presenters:

• Tracie D. Hall, Executive Director, Historically Black Colleges and Universities Library Alliance
• Victoria-Lola Leon Guerrero, Director, University of Guam Press
• Allison Levy, Director, Brown University Digital Publications (chair)

Description: Building on work by the Association of University Presses’ Library Relations Committee and initiatives spearheaded by leaders of the HBCU Library Alliance, Brown University Digital Publications, and University of Guam Press, this panel demonstrates how libraries and university presses can develop and sustain support models for Black and Indigenous scholars. We will discuss training and mentoring programs, intentional acquisitions and peer review practices, open access and other equity concerns.

HANDS ON: Finding Your Place in Open Source Software: A Hands-on Workshop for First-Time Contributors

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

Title: Finding Your Place in Open Source Software: A Hands-on Workshop for First-Time Contributors

Presenters:

• Steel Wagstaff, he/him, Customer Experience Lead, Pressbooks
• Zach Davis, President, Cast Iron Coding (Manifold)

Description: Free and open source software (FOSS) powers much of the library publishing ecosystem, yet many potential contributors are uncertain about how they belong in open source software communities. Barriers such as perceived technical requirements, fear of making mistakes, unclear onboarding processes, outdated documentation, exclusionary language, and a lack of visible mentorship can discourage  participation, particularly from those without formal software development backgrounds. This interactive, hands-on workshop will provide a welcoming, inclusive, and practical introduction to contributing to open source software projects, emphasizing that meaningful contributions extend far beyond writing code. Led by maintainers and leaders from major open source publishing projects (Pressbooks, Manifold, Coko/Ketty, and the Public Knowledge Project), this session will guide participants through a variety of contribution pathways, including proposing features/reporting issues, improving documentation, testing usability and accessibility, and providing translations.

After a brief framing presentation, participants will work in small, facilitated breakout groups with project representatives to explore real project repositories, issue trackers, and contribution guidelines. Attendees will identify contribution opportunities aligned with their interests and skills and take concrete first steps toward participation. The workshop is designed to resemble a supportive edit-a-thon rather than a traditional hackathon, prioritizing learning, confidence-building, and community connection over technical output.

This session requires a hands-on format to ensure participants leave not only with conceptual knowledge, but with direct experience navigating open source contribution workflows and engaging with project communities. Attendees will leave with a clearer understanding of how open source projects function, how their expertise is valuable, and how to continue contributing beyond the conference.

HANDS ON: Putting Open Values to Work: Collaborations between Library Publishers and Open Infrastructures to Sustain Open Workflows in OA Book and OER Publishing

Day/Time/Room
June 17, 2026 | 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. | HUB 214

Title: Putting Open Values to Work: Collaborations between Library Publishers and Open Infrastructures to Sustain Open Workflows in OA Book and OER Publishing

Presenters:

• Harrison Inefuku (he/his), Iowa State University Digital Press
• Steel Wagstaff, Pressbooks
• Andy Byers, Janeway
• Toby Steiner (he/his), Thoth Open Metadata

Description: This workshop will provide insights into the ongoing activities to adopt open workflows within library publishing. Via the example of Iowa State University Digital Press, we will explore how libraries can collaborate with open infrastructures such as Thoth Open Metadata, Janeway, and Pressbooks to implement open practices utilising open data and open protocols to improve findability of their valuable outputs.

ISU Digital Press is considering the adoption of an open ecosystem of interoperable, community-led infrastructures, covering aspects of editorial (Janeway & Pressbooks) and metadata management (Thoth Open Metadata), hosting and distribution (Thoth Open Metadata & OAPEN), discoverability (Directory of Open Access Books, multiple aggregators via Thoth), archiving (Thoth Open Archiving Network), and usage monitoring (OPERAS/Thoth) of open access books.

By collaborating to ensure interoperability and accessible, seamless workflows across vital infrastructures that meet individual publisher needs, we showcase how a more robust, sustainable, and equitable ecosystem for open access books is being embedded by library publishers. We will also seek to shed light on questions and issues that have emerged during the adoption of those open workflows, such as that of mapping different forms of long-form publishing outputs (e.g. textbooks, OER in a broader sense) onto metadata management, dissemination, and archiving processes to ensure long-term availability of those open resources,

Following a round of brief introductory presentations from Iowa State University Digital Press, and the infrastructures involved, we invite participants to engage 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 and regional contexts and corresponding specificities that exist in library publishing across the globe.

FULL SESSION: Oh No, a Table! Library Publishing Experiences in PDF Accessibility and Remediation Work at Large Universities

Day/Time/Room
June 17, 2026 | 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. | HUB 250

Title: Oh No, a Table! Library Publishing Experiences in PDF Accessibility and Remediation Work at Large Universities

Presenters:

• Angela Watters, she/her, Digital Publishing Specialist, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
• Angel Peterson, she/her, Production Specialist & Accessibility Coordinator, Penn State University
• Iliana Cosme-Brooks, she/her, Open Publishing Coordinator, Virginia Tech Publishing & Press
• Kate Sheridan, she/her, Publishing Librarian, University of Minnesota

Description: Due to the new regulations for Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), library publishers are responsible for making their publications—both the content and their platforms—accessible. This roundtable discussion will have representatives from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Virginia Tech, Penn State University, and University of Minnesota discuss the unique challenges of creating accessible content. These challenges include working with different publishing platforms, publication types, and accessibility tools; applying best practices and creating workflows; and working with publication outputs, namely PDFs. Panelists will also discuss how changes in publishing and accessibility technologies have changed their approaches to remediation work (e.g., updates to screen readers) as well as specific remediation challenges, like writing and placing long descriptions for complex images and tagging tables. This presentation will address best practices and challenges creating accessible content, from the source file or platform export to the final tagged PDF. Panelists will also discuss the unique needs and use cases of scholarly publications and their experiences communicating those needs to their universities.