Library Publishing Coalition

Library Publishing Coalition

HASTAC recently signed on as a Strategic Affiliate with the Library Publishing Coalition, a project dedicated to advancing the emerging field of library publishing. The project's goal is to document library publishing activities and provide a forum for practitioners to meet, exchange information and gain training about scholarly publishing.

HASTAC is really excited about this partnership and what the Coalition is doing. We think it raises many questions, like:

  • What is an academic library's role in scholarly publishing? 
  • Is scholarly publishing happening at your library? 
  • What kind of publishing is your library doing?
    • What's working? 
    • What's challenging?
  • What do you think are best practices for library publishing? Is there anyone's work you think exemplifies these best practices?

We're interested to hear what you think. Comment below!

The following text about the project is from the Library Publishing Coalition's website:

Over 50 academic libraries, in collaboration with the Educopia Institute, are founding the Library Publishing Coalition (LPC). The project emerged from conversations between Purdue University, the University of North Texas, and Virginia Tech regarding the need for a community dedicated to advancing the field of library publishing.

Academic libraries and the researchers and organizations they support are facing a new paradigm in scholarly publishing. The web, information and social media technologies, and the Open Source and Open Access movements are changing the framework in which scholarship is created, collected, organized, and disseminated. Yet, as shown by the highly regarded, IMLS-funded Strategies for Success project, library-based publishing groups lack a central space where they can meet, work together, share information, and confront common issues.
 
Through seed support from Educopia and participating institutions, the LPC project will engage practitioners to design a collaborative network that intentionally addresses and supports an evolving, distributed, and diverse range of library production and publishing practices.
 
During the first stage of the project, the LPC’s project team will document and evaluate how best to structure this initiative in order to promote collaboration and knowledge sharing for this field. The project team will produce several concrete deliverables, including:
  1. Targeted research, building on existing broader surveys, that will focus on topics of particular interest to the community, including costs, staffing, and how libraries are financing these ventures.
  2. Compilation of a directory of existing library publishing services, providing details including staff contacts, types of products produced, and software platforms utilized.
  3. A forum for networking and sharing communications about library publishing services, including an annual event and ongoing virtual training and community-building activities.
  4. The design and implementation of the Library Publishing Coalition as an ongoing organization that serves the needs of this community.

Interested in participating on the project?

Academic libraries with an interest in joining the project team may do so at any point from Jan 2013-Dec 2014 and should contact Sarah Lippincott at sarah AT educopia DOT org.

Follow the Library Publishing Coalition on Twitter and Facebook for project updates!

No comments