Documentation: we all know it’s important. It helps to preserve institutional memory, allows future you to get up to speed, and can be a useful resource to share with colleagues. Yet this important activity is often neglected for a variety of factors. To help newcomers get their documentation started, or to revive the initiative of established programs, this February the LPC Professional Development Committee is excited to announce the return of Documentation Month. For the second year, Documentation Month will provide resources, community support, and strategies to encourage library publishers to undertake this important work. Follow along in the LPC-l mailing list for event details and login information to our events.
Documentation toolkit
To support the community in creating documentation, members of LPC’s Professional Development Committee have created a Library Publishing Documentation Toolkit. It consists of four sections: Getting started with documentation, Planning a documentation day, Suggested documentation projects to tackle, and Sharing documentation beyond your institution. The toolkit is available in PDF and as a Google Doc.
Ways to participate in Documentation Month
How can you participate in Documentation Month?
For everyone:
- Follow along on Twitter using the #LPCDocMonth hashtag to see what great work the community is accomplishing this month.
- Organize a local documentation day (see the toolkit for instructions). Share a photo or agenda from your event on Twitter with the #LPCDocMonth hashtag & join in on the fun.
- Create some documentation! The purpose of this event is to support LPC members in creating documentation about your publishing program, so if it inspires you to create even one piece of documentation, you’re participating!
For LPC members:
- Attend this month’s upcoming community calls and workshops
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- February 7th, 2pm Eastern, Documentation Month kick-off community call
- February 14th, 2pm Eastern, Library Publishing Workflows: How to Get Started with Journal Publishing Workflow Documentation hosted by Brandon Locke
- February 24th, 2pm Eastern, Documentation Needs Workshop hosted by Cheryl Ball
- February 28th, 10am-4pm Eastern, Zoom drop-in Documentation Day sprint
- Participate in an accountability group: Join us during the February 7th kick-off community call to join an accountability group for the month. If you can’t make the kick-off call, but want to be paired up with some colleagues to support each others’ documentation efforts, email mhunter2@fsu.edu or ewjerome@library.umass.edu.
Scheduling information and call-in details for these events will be sent out each week to the listserv. Please feel free to share widely within your institution, but these calls are open to LPC member libraries only, so please do not share outside the community.
Happy documenting!
From the Documentation Month planning group (Erin Jerome, Matt Hunter, and Melanie Schlosser) on behalf of the LPC Professional Development Committee