Start Date
30-3-2015 1:30 PM
Keywords
collaboration
Media File:
Description
Enthusiasm for library based publishing activity is at an all time high, as the rapid growth of the Library Publishing Coalition indicates. Indeed, establishing scholarly communication production within the library, the main consumer of scholarly publications, has begun to address many relevant challenges (especially those around access and economics). Real progress has been made, but to deliver on their full promise libraries and the institutions they serve will need to continue to expand their efforts while, at the same time, maximizing return on investment and ensuring long-term sustainability. Doing so will require a new degree of inter- and intra-institutional, collaborative engagement. To flourish in the long term, library publishers must learn from the negative examples of competition and redundant activity that have dogged established scholarly publishers for decades. Numerous models of large-scale collaborative success in libraries (HathiTrust, etc.) provide compelling precedents for a better way. Production, description, distribution and promotion can all benefit from collective articulation of goals and development of tools and methods. Such collective activity will help ensure the most effective use of publishing resources and support the greatest reach of the scholarship that is published by our academic libraries. This presentation is intended to raise awareness about both the challenges and the possibilities of of capitalizing on economies of scale through collaboration and making common cause. It also hopes to instigate conversation among LPC attendees about the best way to design and implement collaborative activities.
Recommended Citation
Bonn, Maria and McCollough, Aaron (2015). "Publishing Libraries Collaborating At and For Scale," Library Publishing Forum - Recorded Sessions. https://newprairiepress.org/lpforum/2015/Concurrents/6
Publishing Libraries Collaborating At and For Scale
Enthusiasm for library based publishing activity is at an all time high, as the rapid growth of the Library Publishing Coalition indicates. Indeed, establishing scholarly communication production within the library, the main consumer of scholarly publications, has begun to address many relevant challenges (especially those around access and economics). Real progress has been made, but to deliver on their full promise libraries and the institutions they serve will need to continue to expand their efforts while, at the same time, maximizing return on investment and ensuring long-term sustainability. Doing so will require a new degree of inter- and intra-institutional, collaborative engagement. To flourish in the long term, library publishers must learn from the negative examples of competition and redundant activity that have dogged established scholarly publishers for decades. Numerous models of large-scale collaborative success in libraries (HathiTrust, etc.) provide compelling precedents for a better way. Production, description, distribution and promotion can all benefit from collective articulation of goals and development of tools and methods. Such collective activity will help ensure the most effective use of publishing resources and support the greatest reach of the scholarship that is published by our academic libraries. This presentation is intended to raise awareness about both the challenges and the possibilities of of capitalizing on economies of scale through collaboration and making common cause. It also hopes to instigate conversation among LPC attendees about the best way to design and implement collaborative activities.
