Professional development for library publishers has been a priority for LPC since its initial project phase. We put on lots of fantastic webinars, and of course the Library Publishing Forum can’t be beat, but there is still an unmet need for more comprehensive, structured educational resources for this growing field. Fortunately, as part of the ‘Developing a Curriculum to Advance Libary-Based Publishing‘ project, a stellar team of individuals and organizations has been working for the last year to develop a set of openly-licensed curriculum materials. This project is a partnership of Educopia, LPC, the Public Knowledge Project, NASIG, and BlueSky to BluePrint, generously funded by the Institute for Museum and Library Services.
We are delighted to announce the release of the Sustainability Module, the third module to be released in the four-part curriculum series! Two other modules, Content and Impact, were made available earlier this year, and the final module, Policy, will be released later this summer. Each module contains an introduction plus 4-7 “units” that address topics of interest. Each unit includes the following components: a narrative, a slideshow with talking notes, activities for use in a physical or virtual classroom for workshops and courses.
Sustainability
The Sustainability Module addresses core concerns related to library publishing as a socio-technical system. In order for library publishing endeavors to establish longevity and long-term success, professionals need to address a range of concerns related to people, policies, communities, technologies, and financials.
Authors: Laurie N. Taylor, Digital Scholarship Librarian at the University of Florida; Brian W. Keith, Associate Dean for Administration and Faculty Affairs at the George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida
Workshop Opportunities
In-person workshops: We will be holding a set of in-person pilot workshops for the Sustainability and Content Modules at the 2018 Digital Library Federation Forum in Henderson, Nevada in October. Look for an announcement with more information in June.
Virtual workshops: We will be holding a series of virtual workshops, one per module, beginning this summer and extending through the fall. Each virtual workshop will last four weeks, and will consist of a weekly synchronous lecture and asynchronous individual work. The virtual workshop for the Sustainability Module will take place in July 2018 and will be taught by Holly Mercer (University of Tennessee). Look for an announcement about the first workshop soon!
More about the curriculum
The Library Publishing Curriculum is a suite of synchronous and asynchronous professional development offerings for librarians that are open and free under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license for anyone to offer or adapt. This dynamic, extensible, multimedia curriculum is intended to empower librarians to meet local demands to launch and/or enhance scholarly publishing activities.
The initial curriculum released in 2018 will include four modules that address major competencies in library publishing: Content, Impact, Policy, and Sustainability. Each module has been authored by field experts, and each is roughly the equivalent of a 12 hour “course.”
Curriculum editors: Sarah Lippincott, Independent Scholarly Communications and Digital Scholarship Consultant; Melanie Schlosser, Educopia Institute; Katherine Skinner, Educopia Institute; Hannah Ballard, Educopia Institute; Nancy Maron, BlueSky to BluePrint