Webinars

The LPC’s Professional Development Committee coordinates a regular webinar series to provide opportunities to share knowledge, discuss on-the-ground experiences, and build on community expertise. Webinar recordings are made openly available here.

March 11, 2025

Introducing Library Publishing to Library Students and Early Career Librarians

While library publishing has been a field of and career in academic librarianship for over a quarter century, it is often unfamiliar to students in library schools and early career librarians, resulting in an important field of librarianship being overlooked.

To remedy this, the Library Publishing Coalition’s Professional Development Committee is offering the webinar, “Introducing Library Publishing to Library Students and Early Career Academic Librarians.” In it, a panel of experts in library publishing will

Overview what library publishing is and why libraries publish
Explain their job responsibilities and what library publishers do
Discuss what knowledge and skills are needed to do this work and how to get them
Share their origin stories and how/why they got started in this field
Answer your questions about this career path

Attendees will leave with a greater awareness of library publishing and how to get started in it.

Panelists

Paige Morgan, Head of Digital Initiatives & Preservation, Digital Publishing & Copyright Librarian, University of Delaware Library, Museums and Press
Jordan Pedersen, Research & Scholarship Librarian, University of Guelph Libraries
Marianne Reed, Digital Publishing & Repository Manager, University of Kansas Libraries
John Warren, Director and associate professor, Graduate Program in Publishing, George Washington University
Nicholas Wojcik, Open Journal Publishing Librarian, University of Oklahoma, Norman Libraries

Moderator: Stefanie Buck, Director of Open Educational Resources, Oregon State University

Watch the recording and view the slides.

February 24, 2025

Creating Workflows for Accessibility Compliance

In anticipation of new accessibility-related requirements coming into force through U.S. and European laws, the Library Publishing Coalition’s Professional Development Committee focused this year’s Documentation Month on accessibility-related documentation and processes! Good documentation can preserve institutional memory for yourself and for future colleagues. But between deadlines and day-to-day tasks, finding the time can be a challenge. Creating effective accessibility workflows can also involve some specific and technical know-how, which may make it feel even more challenging to get started.

The third webinar, entitled Creating Workflows for Accessibility Compliance, was held on February 24. This webinar brought representatives from Indiana University Bloomington Libraries and William and Mary Libraries to share how their libraries plan to comply with the recent Justice Department ruling on the accessibility of web content and make their digital documents accessible. They will overview how they created accessibility compliance workflows, why they created them as such, what challenges they faced and how they solved them, and how you might create yours. The panelists will share their workflows as models so attendees leave knowing how to develop procedures for complying with this ruling.

Speakers

Rachael Cohen is the Head of Discovery and User Experience at Indiana University Bloomington, where she leads initiatives to enhance information discovery and user engagement. With a strong commitment to academic collaboration, Rachael actively contributes to several committees within the Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) and currently serves on its Steering Committee. Her research interests span user experience design, search query analysis, and the development of discovery tools to optimize library services. Rachael earned a dual Master’s degree in Library Science and Information Science from Indiana University Bloomington in 2012.
Ruth Light is the Electronic Resources Access Manager and Interim Head of Electronic Resources Acquisitions at Indiana University Libraries, Bloomington. In these roles she ensures access to licensed and open access resources, with particular focus on authentication and discovery. Ruth earned her Master of Library Science from Indiana University in 2008.
Debbie Cornell is the Digital Projects Librarian at William & Mary Libraries, overseeing the library’s digitization program, crowd-sourced transcription initiatives, and serving as a liaison for digital partner projects. With expertise in accessibility, they have developed protocols to make analog library materials available and digital library collections more inclusive and user-friendly.

Watch the recording and view the slides: Cornell | Light and Cohen

February 19, 2025

Math, Music, and Linguistics Accessibility

The second webinar, entitled Math, Music, and Linguistics Accessibility, was held on February 19. Speakers information:

Brian Richwine is the Senior Accessibility Strategist for Learning Technologies at Indiana University. He has been working in accessibility at IU for 24 years.
Anna Dimoula is the Scholarly Communications Librarian for the Performing Arts & Humanities at the University of Miami. In this role, Anna is primarily responsible for providing her service to a variety of UM activities, including: management of the Institution’s repository system Scholarship@Miami, support of digital platforms, consultations on copyright issues, and assistance on scholarly publishing requests by faculty from Frost School of Music and the Humanities department.
Elizabeth J. Pyatt earned her Ph.D. in linguistics of Celtic languages before transitioning to a career as an instructional designer. She has been working Waon accessibility issues since 2001 and has assisted in making multiple foreign language, linguistic and grammar courses more accessible to Penn State students.

Watch the recording and view the slides: Math | Music | Linguistics

February 12, 2025

It’s Not Just Alt Text: EPUBs and Accessible Digital Publishing

The first webinar was held on February 12, entitled It’s Not Just Alt Text: EPUBs and Accessible Digital Publishing and presented by Laura Brady, an accessible publishing expert who works with eBound Canada, the Accessible Books Consortium, and Adobe, among other organizations. Brady has more than 25 years of trade publishing experience, working in digital publishing for the past fifteen years, creating and converting ebooks, training publishers on accessible workflows, and consulting for services organizations about how to publish inclusively while worrying about everyone’s reading experience. She teaches about ebooks, publishing, and accessibility at Simon Fraser University and Toronto Metropolitan University. Her website is https://laurabrady.ca/

Watch the meeting recording and view the slides.

September 30, 2024

University Based Publishing Futures (UBPF) community launch

On Monday, September 30, 2024, the University Based Publishing Futures [UBPF] community officially launched with an open virtual meeting attended by 150 colleagues. UBPF is a new, multi-community coalition made up of the professionals who work at university presses, library publishers, and other academy-affiliated programs that support the infrastructure of scholarly publishing. The purpose of this “community of communities” is to share knowledge among university-based publishers and align our outreach and advocacy efforts for maximum impact.

To learn more about this new community, watch the meeting recording, or visit the UBPF website on Knowledge Commons.

Members of the planning group (which includes leaders of the Association of University Presses and the Library Publishing Coalition) were thrilled by the number of attendees and the level of excitement displayed at the launch meeting, and we are deeply grateful to our communities for supporting this work.

If you believe that university-based publishers play a vital role in scholarly publishing and that we, along with the communities we serve, would benefit from closer collaboration and increased advocacy, we encourage you to get involved and help spread the word! Interested individuals can join the community group on Knowledge Commons and/or volunteer for a working group (deadline: October 31). Interested organizations can sign on to the community statement and share information with employees and members. Visit the Get Involved page to learn more.

June 18, 2024

Understanding the Revised ADA Title II: Implications for Library Publishing

Accessibility is a critical issue for all library activities, but library publishing has a unique set of opportunities and challenges in this area, including web accessibility and production workflows. With ADA Title II regulations going into effect by the end of June, it is important for library publishers to understand what role they will play. The Library Publishing Coalition and the Library Accessibility Alliance will co-host a webinar on this topic on Tuesday, June 18, at 12:00 p.m. Eastern time.

Join Pete Bossley, former Deputy ADA Coordinator at The Ohio State University and current Senior Manager of Accessibility at Thomson Reuters for a 60-minute webinar (30-minute presentation followed by Q&A) about the revisions to ADA Title II and its implications for library publishing. He will discuss what public entities need to know about their obligations under the new regulations, and what organizations serving these entities can do to support them in meeting those requirements. Angel Peterson, Production Specialist and Accessibility Coordinator at Penn State, as an expert in both digital accessibility and library publishing, will facilitate the Q&A.

This webinar is critical for all library publishers LPC and LAA members as well as the broader library community to understand these revision requirements and what’s at stake.

LAA will host the webinar and include American Sign Language interpretation and captioning. A recording of this event will be shared publicly for those who aren’t able to attend.

This collaborative effort between LPC and LAA is just the first in an ongoing partnership. While libraries and library publishers are beholden to publishers and their platforms, this new partnership seeks to set a path to meaningful collaboration and action toward ensuring our content and systems are accessible.

Speakers

Peter Bossley is an experienced digital accessibility leader, having spent 17 years professionally in the technology field. He currently leads accessibility specialists at Thomson Reuters, working to make products accessible to the widest audience possible. Prior to his role at Thomson Reuters, he led the digital accessibility compliance program at The Ohio State University. He has also provided consulting services to customers in the private and public sector including nationwide retail and food service, state and local government, as well as being an expert witness in federal court for a national disability rights organization. As a person with a disability himself, but with a strong understanding of the challenge of implementing accessibility at scale, he brings a unique and balanced perspective on accessibility issues. He is a Certified Professional in Web Accessibility by the International Association of Accessibility Professionals.

Angel Peterson is the Production Specialist and Accessibility Coordinator with Penn State University Libraries Open Publishing program. She provides production support for monographs and bibliographies as well as document and web accessibility support and training for all publication types. She has been on the Board of the Library Publishing Coalition since 2023.

Webinar Details

Understanding the Revised ADA Title II: Implications for Library Publishing

Tuesday, June 18, 2024 at 12 PM EDT

View the recording on Vimeo

October 4, 2018

Publisher as Researcher

Date and time: Tuesday, November 6th, 1:00pm Eastern / 10:00am Pacific Panelists: Laurie Taylor (University of Florida), Daniel Tracey (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Charlotte Roh (University of San Francisco), and John Warren (George Washington University) Moderator: Karen Bjork (Portland State University)

This panel discussion covered ways Librarians can engage in researching library publishing, with a particular emphasis on the following:

How to research library publishing?
How to successfully connect with others to collaborate on research?
How to decide where to submit your research?
What are some of the benefits, to yourself and to the field, of publishing your research?

Panelist bios:

Charlotte Roh is the Scholarly Communications Librarian at the University of San Francisco, where she manages the institutional repository, the library publishing program, the copyright advisory team, and the open education program.

Laurie Taylor is Chair of the Digital Partnerships & Strategies Department at the University of Florida, Digital Scholarship Director for the Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC), and Editor-in-Chief for the LibraryPress@UF.

Daniel G. Tracy is the Head of Scholarly Communication and Publishing at the University of Illinois Library and researches issues related to user experience and digital publishing.

John Warren is Director and Associate Professor in the Master of Professional Studies in Publishing program at George Washington University. He has authored several articles about publishing and the evolution of e-books, and most recently authored the Impact module for the Library Publishing Curriculum.

Karen Bjork is the Head of Digital Initiatives at Portland State University, where she manages the institutional repository and the library publishing program.

February 6, 2018

Figuring it out together: Building foundational knowledge for OER publishing

Date and time: Wednesday, February 6th, 2pm Eastern Presenters: Karen Lauritsen, managing director, Open Textbook Network; Karen Bjork, head of digital initiatives at Portland State University; Carla Myers, assistant librarian and coordinator of scholarly communications for the Miami University Libraries

Join us for a conversation about building OER publishing capacity at your institution. In what we hope will be an interactive session, we will explore expectations, goals, and possibilities around designing open textbook publishing programs. We’ll discuss how programs and services can evolve, and how two institutions are dealing with tensions around finding time, defining roles, and securing funding. We’ll discuss the Open Textbook Network Publishing Cooperative and how it’s being leveraged in a variety of institutional contexts, as well as the new Open Textbook Publishing Curriculum, which are living modules designed to support your work. We’ll also highlight the power of community in providing support and combating isolation. Bring your questions with you, including the goals and challenges you are anticipating or confronting in your own OER publishing programs.

This event is part of the 2019 Library Publishing Coalition/Open Textbook Network webinar exchange.

February 1, 2018

Best practices in open access publishing

Date and time: Thursday, March 15, 12:00pm Eastern Presenter: Claire Redhead, Executive Director, Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association Moderator: Melanie Schlosser, LPC Community Facilitator

In this webinar, Claire Redhead, the Executive Director of the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA), shares a global perspective on the OA publishing landscape, and explains the role that her organization plays in promoting high standards for OA scholarship, as well as explaining OASPA’s membership criteria.

View the slides from this webinar

January 17, 2018

Copyright and Creative Commons: Publishing with open licenses

Date and time: Tuesday, January 30, 1-2pm EST Presenter: Meredith Jacob, Public Lead for Creative Commons USA Moderators: Barbara DeFelice (Dartmouth College) and Rhonda Marker (Rutgers University)

Publishing under an open license can have significant benefits for researchers, educators, and students – as well as boosting innovation and improving access to knowledge – but navigating copyright, fair use, and licensing isn’t easy. Creative Commons licenses are designed to help simplify the process, but they operate in this complex environment. In this webinar, you will learn how to apply different Creative Commons licenses in the publishing context, and delve into questions such as what “non-commercial” means, how to handle 3rd party copyrighted content in a CC licensed work, and what attribution is all about in the CC context.

As Public Lead for Creative Commons USA, Meredith Jacob maintains the core legal guidance around Creative Commons licenses.