New SPARC Guide and Online Community Aid Library-University Press Collaboration

[Jennifer McLennan <jennifer@arl.org>]

For immediate release
January 22, 2009

For more information, contact:
Jennifer McLennan
(202) 296-2296
jennifer@arl.org

New SPARC Guide and Online Community Aid Library-University Press
Collaboration
Free Resource Offers Practical Help with Setting Up Successful Campus
Publishing Partnerships

Washington, DC -- January 22, 2009 -- SPARC (the Scholarly 
Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) today released 
Campus-based Publishing Partnerships: A guide to critical issues, 
by Raym Crow. The guide is the core of a new Web site, the 
Campus-based Publishing Resource Center, designed by a panel of 
advisors from the library and university press communities to 
support successful publishing partnerships.

Campus publishing partnerships can offer universities greater 
control over the intellectual products that they help create. But 
to fully realize this potential, partnerships need to evolve from 
ad hoc working alliances to stable, long-term collaborations. 
SPARC's guide will help partnering organizations to:

.  Establish practical governance and administrative structures;

.  Identify funding models that accommodate the different 
financial objectives of libraries and presses;

.  Define objectives that advance the missions of both the 
library and of the press, without disrupting the broader 
objectives of either; and

.  Demonstrate the value of the collaboration to university 
administrators.

Campus-based Publishing Partnerships will help libraries, 
presses, and other campus units to structure successful 
partnerships---and to recognize when collaboration is not the 
right course of action. The guide reviews current library-press 
initiatives, describes the potential benefits of partnerships, 
and provides an overview of the financial and operating criteria 
for launching and sustaining a successful collaboration. It 
provides practical guidance on structuring a publishing 
partnership, including case studies that illustrate key concepts.

"This is a moment of great opportunity for academic publishing 
and for university presses, in particular," said Laura Cerruti, 
Director of Digital Content Development for the University of 
California Press. "SPARC's efforts to survey those in the 
trenches -- librarians, university press publishers, and other 
active campus publishing entities -- have resulted in an 
invaluable resource for those who are just beginning to tap into 
their campus's publishing needs and priorities. It gives them a 
head start, if you will."

"It's clear that university publishing needs to respond to the 
changes in our economic and technological environments to meet 
the needs of our scholars," added Maria Bonn, director of the 
University of Michigan Scholarly Publishing Office. "Partnerships 
allow us to bring our collective expertise to bear on the 
challenge of creating an affordable publishing system. More 
universities will be looking to forge such partnerships in the 
future, and resources like those provided by the Campus-based 
Publishing Resource Center will be of great value in that 
process."

"While the missions of libraries and presses differ," said 
Heather Joseph, executive director of SPARC, "both entities 
recognize the growing need to address fundamental problems in 
scholarly publishing and to understand the interdependence of 
their organizations. By developing this resource, we hope to 
drive a shared exploration of new, innovative, sustainable 
publishing models."

SPARC is releasing Campus-based Publishing Partnerships in 
conjunction with the launch of the new Web-based "Campus-based 
Publishing Resource Center" at 
http://www.arl.org/sparc/partnering. The resource center 
currently features case studies, a bibliography, and a listserv 
as well as the SPARC guide. In cooperation with its editorial 
board, the site will be expanded to include FAQs, sample planning 
documents, an index of collaborative initiatives, and other 
content suggested by the community.

The editorial board includes:

.    Patrick Alexander, Penn State University Press
.    Maria Bonn, University of Michigan Library
.    Laura Cerruti, University of California Press
.    Raym Crow, SPARC
.    Teresa Ehling, Cornell University Libraries
.    Mike Furlough, Penn State University Libraries
.    Karen Hill, University of Michigan Press
.    Rebecca Kennison, Columbia University
.    Monica McCormick, New York University
.    Catherine Mitchell, California Digital Library
.    Managing Editor: Jennifer McLennan, SPARC

SPARC's Campus-based Publishing Partnerships: A critical guide 
and Campus-based Publishing Resource Center are free online at 
http://www.arl.org/sparc/partnering.

###

Jennifer McLennan
Director of Communications
SPARC
(The Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition)
http://www.arl.org/sparc
jennifer@arl.org