Library Publishing: What’s in it for You?Marcia Stockham & Beth TurtleKansas State University Libraries

Brick & ClickNovember 6, 2015

Agenda/Outcomes

• Our working definition of library publishing• Why K-State chose to invest in this endeavor• Benefits of belonging to a coalition• Overview of current activities at K-State• Potential benefits for you and your library

Definition“…the set of activities led by college and university libraries to support the creation, dissemination, and curation of scholarly, creative, and/or educational works. Generally, library publishing requires a production process, presents original work not previously made available, and applies a level of certification to the content published, whether through peer review or extension of the institutional brand. Based on core library values and building on the traditional skills of librarians, it is distinguished from other publishing fields by a preference for Open Access dissemination and a willingness to embrace informal and experimental forms of scholarly communication and to challenge the status quo.”

(Library Publishing Coalition http://librarypublishing.org/about-us)

Key Points• Activities that support the creation, dissemination,

and curation of scholarly, creative, and/or educational works

• A production process presenting original works – implies a standard of peer review or level of certification

• Preference for open access• Informal / experimental forms of scholarly

communication and challenge status quo

Today’s environment

• Keeping libraries relevant• Changing roles of librarians– Focusing on services, building relationships and

partnerships• Increasing emphasis on scholarly

communication issues– Copyright, fair use, open access data management– Federal mandates for grant recipients

• Looking at collections more holistically

Strategic reasons for publishing

• Provides open access to scholarly work– Peer-reviewed OA journals becoming more accepted

by researchers – Federal funding mandates

• Provides mechanism for highlighting student research

• Provides mechanism for niche publishing, institutional conference proceedings, monographs, digital humanities projects and data

Concerns about Library Publishing

• Staff-related costs (hire/train staff)• Equipment/platform costs• Deciding which services to offer• Other (quality of content, buy-in from

stakeholders, funding sources)• Sustainability

Moulaison, Heather Lea and Chris le Beau. “U.S. Libraries as Publishers: Status and Concerns”. IFLA/WLIC 2015http://library.ifla.org/1159/1/187-moulaison-en.pdf

Library Publishing Coalition

• Independent community-led membership association

• Purpose is to support libraries involved in publishing activities

• Promotes collaboration and knowledge sharing and networking

LPC Publishing Directory

http://www.librarypublishing.org/resources/directory

Publishing @ K-State

• Started with pilot project to place ETDs in IR. Graduate School made electronic submission mandatory by 2007.

• Over 4000 ETDs now in IR plus 5500 older ETDs that have been digitized

• Discussions began about the library expanding publishing opportunities by starting an online imprint

New Prairie Press

• Founded in 2007 as an online, OA imprint devoted to journals in the Social Sciences & Humanities

• Launched using OJS, but later migrated to Digital Commons

Today we publish…

• Journals (10)• Monographs (4) • Conference proceedings (6) • Open Textbooks (1 and another on the way)

From all disciplines …

Services

We provide:• Full-spectrum publishing platform• Training & ongoing support for editors• Troubleshooting• Set-up, layout & design options

Services (cont)

• Formatting for epubs and other mobile devices

• Digitization• Copyright & metadata consultation• Assignment of ISBN/ISSN• Marketing/promotion

Digital Commons Provides

• Technical Support & platform upgrades• Graphic Design (3 initial designs for new

projects)• DOI Assignment• Preservation through Portico/CLOCKSS• Download Statistics• Indexing in DOAJ, Google Scholar, WorldCat

Services in the Future?

• Print on Demand• Copyediting• Typesetting• Indexing/abstracting

Fee-based services may need to be considered

Operations

Budget• contribute to change in the scholarly

publishing system – not for profit or cost recovery

• no fees for our services • funded from library operations budget

Operations

Staffing • .5 coordinator• Director & scholarly communications librarian

(marketing/promotion)• .5 paraprofessional

Operations

Skill Sets Needed• Strong communication & relationship-building

skills for “sales”/promotion• Business skills – planning, project

management, marketing, business plan• Knowledge of copyright/intellectual property• Technical (capacity to learn software, layout,

design, social media, troubleshoot)

Operations

MOUs prepared for each client

Workflows• Every project is unique; workflows must be

flexible – How does client want to utilize software– Digitization needed– Graphic design needed (book covers)

Outreach & Marketing

• Absolutely critical to success• Takes time to build & nurture relationships• Must articulate benefits of OA and insure

quality/authority of library publishing• Always on the look-out for new content• Use liaison librarians• Use social media

So, what’s in it for you?

Real rewards & benefits:• Building tremendous relationships with

people/departments all over campus• Filling a real need• People are looking for a way to publish online

but don’t know where to go• Publications are being found & downloaded

• New content – especially niche - that may have never been published is being disseminated & accessed

• People see the library differently• Satisfying & rewarding work• Scalable and strategic

Thank you!

For questions, please contact:

Marcia StockhamAssistant Dean, Content Management & Scholarly Communicationsstockham@k-state.edu

Beth TurtleScholarly Communications Librarianbturtle@k-state.edu