Adjunct No More: Promoting Scholarly Publishing as a Core Service of Academic Libraries
Adjunct No More: Promoting Scholarly Publishing as a Core Ser vice of Academic Libraries
Isaac Gilman Pacific U niversity Libraries
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turning your dissertation into a book, writing a
proposal (the most requested topic), what you
need to know before signing a contract,
manuscript preparation, getting permissions, how
to create an index, and marketing your book.
Other feedback recommended clearly defining
the intended audience for all workshops as well
as the discipline focus. Many appreciated the
expert advice but wanted to hear directly from
faculty who had recently published their first
book. Samples of good proposals were also
requested. All of these ideas will be
incorporated into planning future events.
The robust workshop program offered in
the Scholars’ Commons is divided into four
tracks. OSP programs are offered in the
“Surviving and Thriving in Academia” and “Tools
in Context” tracks.3 Attendees at workshops,
including those offered by OSP staff, are from
a wide variety of disciplines. Attendees at the
session on publishing a first book were from
education, telecommunications, Jewish studies,
religious studies, theatre, communication and
culture, law, music, informatics, fine arts,
political science, applied health science, speech and
hearing, English, and more. “Before Signing
a Book Contract” (waitlisted) and “Getting
Permissions for Your Book” have been added
to the workshop series based on feedback and
the faculty advisory committee report.
Programs on open access publishing and using
Open Journal Systems for peer review are also
popular. OSP staff also participated in Open
Access Week programs on student publishing
and the basics of publishing agreements.
IU Press staff (alternating among
marketing, editorial, and journals), the copyright
program librarian, and the open access
publishing manager offer weekly consultation
services in the Scholars’ Commons for two
hour blocks of time for a total of six hours a
week. In addition to OSP, partners in
providing consultation services include University
Information Technology Services, Center for
Survey Research, Office of Research
Administration, Office of Vice-Provost for Research,
HathiTrust Research Center, and Indiana
Statistical Consulting Services.4
Consultations services and workshops
are publicized through faculty newsletters,
blogs, Websites, departmental listservs, email
to Graduate and Professional Student
organization members, and via email to previous
workshop attendees. So far, IU Press has
amassed a mailing list of close to 300 previous
workshop attendees to use when announcing
new programs.
In today’s increasingly complex publishing
environment, it is difficult for experienced
faculty, and even more difficult for recently
appointed tenure-track faculty, to determine
the best publication option for their research.
Sharing publishing knowledge and expertise
within our own institution is an invaluable
service OSP staff can provide and one that is
greatly appreciated by administrators, faculty,
and graduate students.
By developing the Office of Scholarly
Publishing, Indiana University seeks to offer
a more encompassing, sustainable, and relevant
model of academic publishing on campus.
Leveraging the strengths of the Libraries and
Office of Scholarly Publishing visibly
demonstrates the important roles that each have in
supporting the research process. In doing so,
both will be stronger for working together to
fulfill the campus mission to “create,
disseminate, preserve, and apply knowledge” and be
active participants in the intellectual life of the
university.
(Endnotes)
1. Scholarly Publishing Advisory
Committee Report to the Provost, June 25, 2013:
http://provost.indiana.edu/docs/Scholarly_
Publishing_Advisory_Committee_2013.pdf.
2. Scholars’ Commons: http://libraries.iub.
edu/scholars-commons
3. For information on the workshop series:
http://libraries.iub.edu/tools/workshops/.
4. For consulting schedule see: http://
libraries.iub.edu/services/scholars-commons#n60085.
Adjunct No More: Promoting Scholarly Publishing as a
Core Service of Academic Libraries
by Isaac Gilman (Associate Professor/Scholarly Communication and Publishing Services Librarian, Pacific University
Libraries) <>
TCoalition (LPC) in 2013 appears to
he founding of the Library Publishing
substantiate earlier claims from the
Association of Research Libraries (ARL) that
“[t]here is an emerging consensus that some
sort of basic publishing services will become a
core service for research libraries.”1 However,
even with a growing LPC membership — and
calls for digital publishing to be considered
a new “core competency” for librarians2 —
complete consensus among library leaders
about publishing has not yet been reached.3
The lack of agreement is hardly surprising:
if publishing services do become part of the
core identity of academic libraries, it will
represent a fundamental shift in the
role of libraries within the
scholarly community. Beyond this
philosophical (...truncated)