Program Committee
John Sherer, North Carolina, Chair
Neil Blair Christensen, California
Rob Dilworth, Duke
Brady Dyer, Texas
Dariel Mayer, Vanderbilt
Alisa Plant, Louisiana State
Darrin Pratt, Colorado
Program: “Connect, Collaborate”
Thursday, June 18
Pre-Meeting Workshops and Events
New Directors Bootcamp
In this session, press directors with less than three years on the job will discuss the challenges of their position, learn from those who have successfully navigated rocky transitions, and brainstorm ideas on how AAUP can support them.
Organizers: Lisa Bayer, Director, University of Georgia Press; Dennis Lloyd, Director, University of Wisconsin Press; Nicole Mitchell, University of Washington Press; Tony Sanfilippo, Director, Ohio State University Press
AAUP Press Directors Meeting
Sponsored by Ingram
Location: Coors Field
In conjunction with this year’s annual meeting, AAUP Board members have planned a special interactive brainstorming Directors’ Meeting focusing on the challenges and opportunities facing scholarly publishers with an eye toward finding common solutions to problems and most effectively capitalizing on new ways of connecting authors and readers.
Organizers: Leila Salisbury, Director, University Press of Mississippi; Mark Saunders, Director, University of Virginia Press
Coloring Outside the Lines: Brainstorming New (and Non-traditional) Strategies and Tools for Marketing
This half-day interactive workshop will facilitate a “Big Ideas” conversation to get people thinking about what we can and should be doing in marketing as we try to navigate the ever-changing marketing landscape.
Organizer: Amanda E. Sharp, Publicity and Sales Manager, University of Georgia Press
InDesign to EPUB
By focusing on InDesign as an EPUB creation tool, this half-day workshop will cover getting the most ebook value from InDesign.
Organizers: AAUP Design and Production Committee; John Long, Assistant Production Manager, National Gallery of Art, Chair
AAUP Journals Assembly
Gather with the directors, managers, and other leading staff who produce journals across the AAUP landscape.
Organizers: AAUP Journals Committee; Jill Rodgers, Journals Marketing Manager, MIT Press, Chair
5:00 – 6:00 p.m. Newcomers Reception
Sponsored by Books International
All newcomers are encouraged to attend.
6:00 – 7:00 p.m. Opening Reception
Sponsored by Thomson-Shore, Inc.
7:00 – 9:00 p.m. Opening Banquet and Presentation of AAUP Constituency Award
Featured Speaker: Aaron Abeyta
Aaron A. Abeyta is a Colorado native and professor of English at Adams State University. He is the author of four collections of poetry and one novel. For his book Colcha, Abeyta received the American Book Award and the Colorado Book Award. In addition to sponsoring Abeyta’s talk, The University Press of Colorado is providing copies of Colcha to AAUP 2015 attendees.
9:00 – 11:00 p.m. Reception
Sponsored by The Chronicle of Higher Education
Location: The Daniels & Fisher Tower, 17th Floor, 1606 Arapahoe Street, Denver, CO 80202
Friday, June 19
7:00 – 7:45 AM The Mile-High 5K Run
Co-chaired by Beth Bouloukos, SUNY Press, and Greg Britton, Johns Hopkins. Get your blood pumping with an early walk or run before a full day of sessions. Maps provided. Hydrate and meet in the hotel lobby at 7:00.
7:30 – 8:45 AM Continental Breakfast
Grab some coffee, fruit, and pastries with fellow attendees. Several tables will be reserved for topical discussions:
Breakfast Tables
If you are interested in hosting a breakfast table, please contact annualmeeting@aaupnet.org.
Building a Journals Program
Host: Richard Brown, Director, Georgetown University Press
Library Relations
Host: Lisa Bayer, Director, University of Georgia Press
9:00 – 10:15 AM Plenary
A Discussion with Dr. Vint Cerf
Join Google’s Chief Internet Evangelist Vint Cerf in a wide ranging interactive plenary. A recipient of the U.S. National Medal of Technology, the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Alan M. Turing award (sometimes called the “Nobel Prize of Computer Science”), and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Dr. Cerf is widely known as one of the “Fathers of the Internet” for co-designing TCP/IP protocols and basic Internet architecture during his time in the ARPANET project.
More recently, in addition to his responsibilities as VP and Chief Internet Evangelist at Google, he has been working on the development of an Interplanetary Internet with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab and advocating for the introduction of a “digital vellum” system to preserve online content.
Moderator: Alphonse MacDonald, Director of Marketing and Technology, National Academies Press
[Watch session]
10:15 – 10:45 AM Coffee Break
10:45 AM – 12:00 PM Concurrent Sessions
Successful Product Development: Is “Fail Fast” the Only Way?
Digital technologies allow us to cast off the constraints of traditional formats to offer something new. But while digital product development gurus champion the need to “fail fast and often” to succeed, how can university presses manage the risks involved? How do we take a new product from concept to launch, and if we do, will readers, authors, and librarians be interested? This session tackles the practical experience of new product development, covering books, journals, collections, and digital-first publications. We’ll make suggestions and pose questions about how a press can adapt its organization, culture, and infrastructure to develop successful digital products. And we’ll talk about measuring success and failure in a world of emergent products and strategies.
Chair: Leslie Eager, Communications and Library Exhibits Coordinator, Duke University Press
Panelists: Sylvia Hunter, Editorial Manager, Journals, University of Toronto Press; Alison Mudditt, Director, University of California Press
[Watch session]
Should Scholarly Be Social? Big Questions and a Small Amount of Characters
A roundtable and “bigger question” discussion with younger members of the AAUP family as they consider the ‘What, Why, and What Ifs’ of social media and scholarly publishing. Leaving what university presses are currently doing behind, and looking forward to the possibilities that social media might offer, the panel will consider a fresh take on ideas such as: Does social media matter within specific fields? Can we trust authors to promote themselves using social media? Can a tweet sell a book? What could social media do for university presses, that it isn’t doing now?
Chair: Rosemary Vestal, Publicity Manager, University of Nebraska Press
Panelists: Casey LaVela, Publicity and Communications Manager, University of Washington Press; Alexa Colella, Journals Marketing Manager, University of Illinois Press; Dawn Durante, Acquisitions Editor, University of Illinois Press
Series Makers and Serie-al Killers: When to Start, How to Grow, and When to Kill a Monograph Series
Three very experienced editors/directors bring their expertise to this open discussion about series. Some of the questions to be addressed are: Do series work? If so, when and how? Why might you want a series? How do you measure the success of a series? Does marketing like series? When do you kill one and for what reason(s)? Do you work with an editorial board or series editor(s)? What are the advantages/disadvantages of each? How can you fund a series for the long haul?
Chair: Meredith Babb, Director and Acting Editor-in-Chief, University Press of Florida
Panelists: John Byram, Director, University of New Mexico Press; Carey Newman, Director, Baylor University Press; Larin McLaughlin, Editor-in-Chief, University of Washington Press
Consortia, DDA, and Occam¹s Reader: Current Trends in Library Collection Development and Their Implications for University Presses
Collection development in the research library is an area as dynamic as it is critical, and in it we see an important intersection of interests between libraries and university presses. Presenters here will give us a state-of-the-field look at emerging trends in demand-driven acquisitions, library consortia, and the Occam’s Reader pilot project for interlibrary loan of eBooks.
Chair: Michael Spooner, Associate Director, University Press of Colorado
Presenters: George Machovec, Executive Director, Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries; Joni Blake, Executive Director, Greater Western Library Alliance (GWLA)
Respondent: Charles Watkinson, Director, University of Michigan Press
Fonts in E-Books
Where would publishers be without fonts? Where are we with fonts, given the multiplicity of delivery formats, devices, reading environments, and user expectations? E-books present their own challenges when it comes to fonts. We cannot solve all the problems, but have to decide which ones we will and will not try to solve—thus, we must pick our poison. This panel takes up those challenges as they relate to font options, fonts behaving badly, how technology affects font display, design issues across formats, BIDI (bidirectionality), and Unicode. This panel will provide a snapshot of the current state of affairs in dealing with the challenges of fonts in e-book production.
Chair: Mark Fretz, Director of Editorial Services, Scribe Inc. [Presentation]
Panelists: Dan Ochsner, Design and Production Manager, University of Minnesota Press [Presentation]; Eileen Reilly, Digital Production, Princeton University Press [Presentation]; Tim Roberts, Principal, Field Editoral, and Managing Editor, The American Literatures Initiative [Presentation]; Clark Matthews, Vice President of Digital Services, Independent Publishers Group [Presentation]
Leadership Currency: Flow with Change
Those in management positions within university presses find themselves increasingly confronted with a protean marketplace that demands strong leadership skills for managing change and transition. In this session, Dr. Paul Alexander and Leilani Henry of Regis University’s Institute on the Common Good offer a refreshingly different approach to change management. Alexander—who before running the Institute on the Common Good was Degree Chair for the Master of Nonprofit Management Program (MNM) at Regis for eight years—and Henry—founder of Being and Living® Enterprises and facilitator of hundreds of workplace changes and redesign efforts that have resulted in millions of dollars in organization cost savings—will discuss Leadership Currency.
Leadership Currency reveals how to keep moving (flow), make discoveries (learn), and turn resistance into transformation (change). FLOW+LEARN=CHANGE. This experiential workshop assists you to identify where you stop the flow of change; remove the internal blocks to change; practice simple and effective ways to embody change; think on your feet and expect the unexpected; and manage the currency of change within your work and personal relationships.
Join them and find out how to make change stick and stay in the flow.
Speakers: Paul Alexander and Leilani Raashida Henry, Regis University
[Watch session]
International Sales for Journals, with a focus on Electronic Collections
Selling your products abroad can be puzzling and time-consuming but international markets are vital to our business. How can vendors represent you abroad? How can agents support international outreach? What do libraries and consortia look for when making purchasing/subscription decisions? Is there room for collaboration between presses? Are there opportunities for more granular sales? Should publishers target libraries or scholars and end users?
Chair: Ann Snoeyenbos, Manager, International Sales and Special Markets, Project MUSE
Panelists: Greg Malar, Business Development Director, Rockefeller University Press; Shige Ono, Vice President & Treasurer, Kinokuniya America; Peter Schoppert, Director, National University of Singapore Press
12:00 – 1:00 PM Lunch
1:00 – 1:30 PM AAUP Business Meeting
Speaker: Barbara Kline Pope, AAUP President and Director of National Academies Press
Read Kline Pope’s valedictory address >
1:45 – 3:00 PM Concurrent Sessions
When Publishers Aren’t Getting It Done
This panel will feature scholars who saw a need among their peers not being addressed by university presses and other publishers and scholarly communication services, and created a service meant to address this problem. In what ways did they find publishers to not be addressing the needs of practicing and especially upcoming scholars? Have they sought partnerships with existing publishers to take advantage of their expertise? What do they see as emerging needs of researchers?
Chair: Neil Christensen, Director, Digital Business Development, University of California Press
Panelists: Martin Paul Eve, Lecturer in English Literature, University of Lincoln, Open Library of Humanities; Joshua Nicholson, The Winnower; Lenny Teytelman, Protocols.io; Stacy Konkiel, Altmetric
[Read session Q&A]
Digging Deep into Epublishing: Front End
From managing manuscript submission, to implementing an XML workflow, to creating and maintaining style guides, electronic journal publishing has a whole slew of specific technologies and processes to master. In this session, we will discuss the challenges facing journal publishers looking to broaden their electronic offerings. This panel can be attended singularly or in combination with the “Back End” session.
Chair: Charles Brower, Senior Managing Editor, Journals, Duke University Press
Panelists: Jennifer L. Comeau, Assistant Director and Editorial, Design, Production Manager, University of Illinois Press; Bob Oeste, Senior Programmer/Analyst, Johns Hopkins University Press
Great Digital Advertising: Designing, Testing and Developing High Performance Campaigns
Print display advertising can be relegated to a luxury for some titles but with the advent of digital advertising, display has never been more accountable, effective or adaptable. This panel will look at the most crucial details of successful digital display from brand level to analytics, sharing results of tested digital campaigns, ‘before and after’ case studies and the benchmarks they offer the scholarly publishing community.
Chair: Jill Rodgers, Journals Marketing Manager, MIT Press
Panelists: Tim Johnson, Advertising Director, London Review of Books; Simon Kearney, Senior Research Manager, The Sound Research; Jodi Narde, Digital Marketing Manager, NYU Press; Anne Osterman, Advertising Manager, University of Chicago Press
Scheduling in a World of Variables: The Planning, Doing, and Reporting
Coming from the manuscript editing, typesetting, design/production, and book manufacturing areas of publishing, panelists will look at the challenges of establishing realistic schedules and sticking to them, particularly as schedules continue to get shorter, staffs get smaller, and marketing demands for reliable target dates get more critical. Panelists will address what kinds of planning tools have worked well for their presses, what they have tried that did not work, and what kinds of challenges they still face. A lively Q&A session is expected to follow panel presentations.
Presenters: Patty Chase, Production Manager, Books Division, Duke University Press; Vanessa Rusch, Managing Editor, University of Alabama Press; Katie Duelm, Managing Editor, Texas A&M University Press; Dan Pratt, Production Manager, University Press of Colorado/Utah State University Press; Terri Barlow, Vice-President of Sales and Marketing, Thomson-Shore, Inc.
[Watch session]
Scholarship in 140 Characters? Using Social Media in Acquisitions
Acquiring cutting-edge scholarship requires being where scholars actively discuss and debate their work. Though departmental hallways and academic conferences have long been such spaces, scholars are increasingly sharing and arguing about ideas on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. This session will explore the role of social media in scholarship and acquisitions. Panelist include editors who currently use social media to learn about new ideas and meet potential authors as well as academics who see intellectual exchanges on sites like Twitter as essential to pursuing their scholarlship. Attendants are encouraged to set up a Twitter account prior to the session.
Chair: Matt McAdam, Senior Acquisitions Editor, Johns Hopkins University Press
Panelists: Greg Britton, Editorial Director, Johns Hopkins University Press; Lisa Bayer, Director, University of Georgia Press; Lori Emerson, Assistant Professor of English and Director of the Media Archaeology Lab, University of Colorado
Research Results/Ithaka S+R
Panelists will present preliminary findings on two Mellon-funded initiatives on monographs—one of their costs and one on their sales to libraries via Amazon.
Until now, university press monographs have largely remained on the sidelines as author-side payments have facilitated OA models in journals publishing, particularly in STEM fields. Today, there is real interest in exploring what it would take to create and disseminate OA monographs, but the question remains: what would it cost? This session will offer an overview and some preliminary findings from an ongoing research study led by Nancy Maron at Ithaka S+R to determine the costs involved in creating and disseminating high quality digital monographs.
The channels through which publishers sell to libraries and libraries acquire from publishers matter to all parties, and there is reason to suspect they may be changing. Researchers from Ithaka S+R, in collaboration with Joseph Esposito, are in the process of studying changes in these sales channels, and in particular Amazon’s role. Using some previously untapped data sources, as well as surveys, we are gathering data to address how books are distributed to libraries, and how those channels are shifting, with greater specificity than ever before. In this session, we will share a current project update and seek the advice of the AAUP community about our directions for the remainder of the research project.
Chair: John Sherer, Director, University of North Carolina Press
Speakers: Nancy Maron, Ithaka S+R; Roger Schonfeld, Ithaka S+R, and Joe Esposito, Consultant (Section 2)
3:00 – 3:30 PM Refreshment Break
3:30 – 4:45 PM Concurrent Sessions
50th Anniversary of the Book, Jacket, and Journal Show
A panel of notable designers and educators honors the best in design and production from the 2015 Book, Jacket, and Journal Show and discusses the current state of scholarly book design and digital publishing. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the show, and for the first time, digital publications are among the selected entries and will be included for presentation.
Chair: Jeffrey Cohen, Senior Designer, Getty Publications
Judges: Nola Burger, Designer, Callisto Media; Ned Drew, Professor of Graphic Design & Design History, Rutgers-Newark; Partner, BRED; Renate Gokl, Associate Professor & Chair of Visual Communication Design, School of the Art Institute of Chicago; Simon Johnston, Simon Johnston Design; Professor & Director of Print, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena
[Watch session] [Presentation]
Digging Deep into Epublishing: Back End
Once your content has been published digitally, how do you disseminate it as broadly as possible? And how much of a return can you expect on your investment? We explore the conversion of journals to e-books, repurposing content into new digital formats, and other methods for distributing journals beyond the standard online collections. This panel can be attended singularly or in combination with the “Front End” session.
Chairs: Joel Puchalla, Journals Project Coordinator, University of Nebraska Press
Panelists: Julie Lambert, Production Coordinator, Journals, Penn State University Press; Anna Pollock-Nelson, Senior Publishing Technology Specialist, MIT Press; David Rech, President, Scribe
The Open Access Monograph: Practical Implications and Challenges
More and more academic books in the humanities and social sciences are being made immediately open access upon publication with both established publishers and new entrants developing OA programs. Several important international studies have outlined plausible funding scenarios (including the AAU-ARL prospectus for an institutionally funded first-book subvention, the Knowledge Unlatched pilot project report, and the UK government’s Crosswick Report) while major funders such as the Mellon and NEH have become highly engaged in supporting innovation in monographic business models and platforms.
Whatever one’s philosophical attitude to open access monographs, the growth of this sector of our industry will have major disruptive effects on our systems and normal ways of doing business. This session explores the practical implications of open access book publishing for the various links in the information supply chain; authors’ parent institutions, publishers, infomediaries, and libraries. Speakers representing these different links will explore the practical challenges that OA book publishing poses and describe how they are thinking of addressing them. They will also assess the prospects for OA book publishing over the next five years. Plenty of time will be left for discussion.
Chair: Charles Watkinson, Director University of Michigan Press
Panelists: Richard W. Clement, Dean of University Libraries, University of New Mexico; Michael Levine-Clark, Professor / Associate Dean for Scholarly Communication and Collection Services, University of Denver Libraries; Terry Ehling, Associate Director, Project Muse; Alison Mudditt, Director, University of California Press
Backlist to the Future: The Hidden Value in Your Catalog
Backlist (both in- and out-of-print) is frequently a press’s greatest underutilized asset. These books form a rich record, and among them are often key publications that defined the press and its host institution(s). But they also have untapped potential commercial and marketing value. New technologies and grant opportunities are lowering the barriers to making these books available again or available in new ways. This panel discussion brings together presses and vendors to reveal innovative and cost-effective ways of offering print and digital editions of these titles—allowing presses to celebrate their legacies, strengthen their intellectual property strategy, forge new relationships, and generate new streams of income. Panelists will discuss specific initiatives including Princeton University Press’s Legacy Library, the University of North Carolina Press’s Enduring Editions and DocSouth collaboration with UNC Libraries, as well as the University Press of Kentucky’s backlist digitization project with University of Kentucky Libraries. Vendors Ingram and CodeMantra will share how they have been helping publishers make their backlist titles more widely accessible globally and enhance their long tails with minimal investment and positive returns.
Chair: Amy Harris, Director of Marketing of Sales, University Press of Kentucky
Panelists: Marjorie Fowler, Electronic Projects Coordinator, University of North Carolina Press; Phil Ollila, Chief Content Officer at Ingram Content Group; Susan Peterson, SVP, Sales at codeMantra, LLC; and Kenneth Reed, Digital Production Manager, Princeton University Press
Collaborating for Financial Success
It’s important for university presses to be united and to collaborate in any number of areas, but we are in an age now where collaborating for definable financial success—either because of economies of scale or market power—is crucial. In this panel, we will present some of those success stories, including a mutually beneficial partnership between two scholarly presses (the Jewish Publication Society and University of Nebraska Press, as well as University Press of Colorado and Utah State University Press), a press bringing a number of common functions under one roof to achieve economies of scale for itself and partner presses, making the difficult decision to outsource its fulfillment and warehousing and what that has meant financially, and a look at how the university press digital collaboration, UPCC, has fared.
Chair: Donna Shear, Director, University of Nebraska Press
Panelists: Robbie Dircks, Associate Director and CFO, University of North Carolina Press; Kathleen Keane, Director, Johns Hopkins University Press; Darrin Pratt, Director, University Press of Colorado
[Watch session]
5:00 – 6:15 PM Solutions Showcase
Watch short presentations on innovative ideas, platforms, services, and products while enjoying late afternoon refreshments, games, and prizes.
MC: Greg Britton, Editorial Director, Johns Hopkins University Press
We will hear from the following companies:
Amnet Systems
Baker & Taylor/BookMasters
Bert Davis Executive Search
BitLit
Firebrand Technologies / MetaComet Systems
Ingram Content Group
JSTOR
Klopotek North America
Link-Busters
SmallCo
Project MUSE
Thomson-Shore, Inc.
Tyepfi Systems
6:30 – 8:30 PM Reception
Sponsored by the New York Review of Books
Saturday, June 20
7:30 – 8:45 AM Continental Breakfast
Grab some coffee, fruit, and pastries with fellow attendees. Several tables will be reserved for topical discussions.
Breakfast Tables
Knowledge Unlatched: Update and Next Steps
Host: Frances Pinter, Founder of KU, and CEO, Manchester University Press
7:30 – 8:45 AM Small Press Breakfast
9:00 – 10:15 AM Concurrent Sessions
It’s a Partnership: Teaching Authors about Self-Promotion
First-time authors, or first-time university press authors, usually have lots of questions about how their books will be marketed, publicized, and sold. They may assume it is all done in-house, they need to hire a publicist, or they are expected to do all of the work themselves. This roundtable discussion will address topics such as how, and when, to set boundaries and expectations, what an author’s online presence should be, how to view Amazon rankings and bestseller lists, and how to develop relationships with local and independent bookstores. The goal of the session will be to find ways the marketing, sales, and publicity departments can and should collaborate with authors to take advantage of all possible resources for effective promotion and marketing. Attendees from other departments, particularly acquisitions, may find the information useful when addressing author expectations.
Chair: Amanda E. Sharp, Assistant Marketing Manager for Publicity and Sales, University of Georgia Press
Presenters: Amy Harris, Director of Marketing and Sales, University Press of Kentucky; Gigi Lamm, Publicity and Public Relations Manager, University of Pennsylvania Press; Rachael Levay, Marketing and Sales Director, University of Washington Press; Beth Svinarich, Sales and Marketing Manager, University Press of Colorado
Open Access for HSS Journals
Do viable business models exist to sustain open access journal publishing in the humanities and social sciences? For example, can an author-pay model work in humanities fields where funding may not be readily available? This session examines the different approaches used by three emergent H&SS OA publishing platforms. Modern Languages Open launched at Liverpool University with an author-fee model. The Open Library of Humanities, while taking its cue from PLOS, is developing a library-funded model. Collabra, an OA “mega-journal” initiative from the University of California Press, will feature a “pay it forward” twist on the APC model.
Chair: Elizabeth Brown, Manager of Publisher Relations, Project MUSE
Panelists: Neil Christensen, Director, Digital Business Development, University of California Press; Martin Paul Eve, Lecturer in English Literature, University of Lincoln, Open Library of Humanities; Clare Hooper, Journals Publishing Manager, Liverpool University Press
[Watch session]
Does It Have to Be Blue? The Purpose and Evolution of Book Covers in University Press Publishing
The last two decades has seen a dramatic shift in book cover design treatment at many university presses. At one time, covers were treated as tasteful ornament to serious work, often as restrained as the book’s scholarly prose, rarely eliciting spirited discussion. Cover designs are now treated as serious marketing tools, with multiple designs, multiple rounds, and, occasionally, heated debate. While academic writing is no more accessible today than it was twenty years ago, and print runs are likely to be way less than half what they used to be, are we deluded to care so much about book covers? Or are first impressions even more critical for those very reasons? Two designers, a sales manager, and an acquiring editor will discuss the phenomenon, doing their best not to come to blows. Afterwards, conversation will be opened to the floor, and then we will all go across the street for drinks, to brainstorm about other, more lucrative, careers.
Chair: Rob Ehle, Art Director, Stanford University Press [Introduction Presentation] [Author Guidelines Presentation]
Panelists: Tom Eykemans, Senior Designer, University of Washington Press; Julie Thomson, Direct Marketing Manager & Sales Associate, Duke University Press [Presentation]; Christie Henry, Editorial Director, Sciences and Social Sciences, University of Chicago Press
[Watch session]
New Editors-in-Chief Roundtable
At many university presses, acquisitions leadership turns over once in a generation. Becoming head of an acquisitions department thus invariably involves new opportunities and challenges, both personal and institutional, long- and short-term. How is this terrain navigated by someone arriving from a different publishing house, in contrast to an editor who has come up through the ranks? How are new editorial directions folded into the existing strengths and parameters of an editorial program? What issues can be foreseen and what comes as a surprise? Each of the speakers on this panel has taken the reins of an acquisition department in the past few years and will speak to her or his personal experience of this transitional time.
Chair: Robert Devens, Editor-in-Chief, University of Texas Press
Panelists: Laurie Mathesen, Editor-in-Chief, University of Illinois Press; Eric Schwartz, Editorial Director, Columbia University Press; Jason Weidemann Editorial Director, University of Minnesota Press
The Grand Convergence: The Evolution of an Interoperable Publishing Ecosystem
The publishing ecosystem we’ve all come to take for granted is fragmented and siloed, but there are some key initiatives underway to address this problem, three of which are highlighted in this session.
Bill Kasdorf will provide an overview of a developing convergence around the Open Web Platform—that broad constellation of technologies (HTML5, XML, CSS, EPUB, and a host of others), largely but not exclusively governed by the W3C—that is forging a truly interoperable publishing ecosystem. The most important development: the IDPF and W3C are jointly working on “EPUB-WEB,” a vision for a single file that works the same online or offline, on the web or in an e-reader or even in a print workflow.
Erich van Rijn will describe the Mellon-funded partnership between the University of California Press and the California Digital Library (and involving input from other university presses) to develop a web-accessible, HTML5-based, open-source content and workflow management system specifically optimized for the production of monographs. When completed, this platform will be made freely available to the community of academic presses, especially university presses and libraries.
Susan Doerr will describe the Mellon-funded Manifold Scholarship digital initiative, which the University of Minnesota Press is developing in partnership with the GC Digital Scholarship Lab at CUNY to create what could be described as the “next generation monograph,” erasing the boundaries between print and e-book formats. Manifold will make it possible to create interactive digital editions of titles also published in print, to deliver them at various levels of granularity, and to enable them to evolve over time to reflect subsequent developments in the field.
Chair: Bill Kasdorf, VP-Content Solutions, Apex
Panelists: Erich van Rijn, Director of Publishing Operations, University of California Press [Presentation]; Susan Doerr, Operations and Business Development Manager, University of Minnesota Press
Content Protection, Control, and Use in the Digital Age
Established to provide “authors” exclusive rights in their “writings” for a “limited time” for the purpose of advancing the “Progress of Science,” copyright protection has evolved from the first copyright statute in 1790 to the Copyright Act of 1909 and the currently effective Copyright Act of 1976. Amendments to the Copyright Act of 1976 have also been subsequently implemented, and the meaning of the terms “authors”, “writings” and “limited time” have also evolved.
Because of the significant increase in the duration of copyright protection, many argue that the U.S. Copyright Act has undermined the original purpose of protecting an author’s work for a “limited time” for the purpose of advancing “knowledge”. In recent years, this has led to increasing advocacy for both “Free Content” (e.g., Creative Commons licenses) and “Open Access,” or free and unrestricted access to copyrighted content.
This program will discuss the (i) evolution of author, publisher and the public’s rights to the “writings” of “authors”, (ii) public domain, (iii) orphan works and (iv) pro and con regarding the Open Access and Free Content movements, with perspectives from both inside and outside academe.
Panelists: Lloyd Rich, Publishing Law Center; Jack Bernard, Associate General Counsel, University of Michigan
10:45 AM – 12:00 PM Concurrent Sessions
To Serve and Publish: Best Practices in Author Instructions
With the ever-growing list of what’s possible and required in academic publishing, author instructions run the risk of ballooning out of control. What might feel to a press like a necessary set of rules and guidelines can strike authors as overly detailed and arcane. It can also be complicated and costly for staffs to enforce all these rules. If we take customer service and efficiency as guiding principles, it behooves both journals and books programs to reflect on the effectiveness of their instructions and the way they ask authors to comply with them. By sharing stories of what has worked (and maybe what hasn’t) in maximizing author compliance, the participants of this panel aim to uncover a few best practices for designing author instructions across books and journals in academic presses.
Chair: Stacy Lavin, Senior Managing Editor, Journals, Duke University Press
Panelists: Jennifer L. Comeau, Assistant Director and Editorial, Design, Production Manager, University of Illinois Press; Katharine Duff, Director of Strategic Partnerships and Analytics, Journals, University of Chicago Press; Larin McLaughlin, Editor-in-Chief, University of Washington Press
CAA’s Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for the Visual Arts: How Can It Help Academic Publishers?
The visual arts have long lagged other fields in employing the powerful fair use doctrine in academic publishing. Now, the newly-created Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Visual Arts, produced by the College Art Association, makes it much easier to employ fair use to publish visual arts scholarship, as well as to create new art, teach art and art history, organize exhibitions and more. In this session, creators of the code address questions, such as: How can fair use simplify and expand publishing in the visual arts? How do you know when a use isn’t fair anymore? Why make a code of best practices in fair use that doesn’t consult publishers? Why would publishers want to use a code created by visual arts professionals?
Speakers: Pat Aufderheide, University Professor and Director, Center for Media & Social Impact, American University; Co-Principal Investigator, Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for the Visual Arts Linda Downs, Executive Director and CEO, College Art Association; Co-Principal Investigator, Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for the Visual Arts
Integrated Workflow, Shifting Responsibilities, and Managing Change in EDP Departments
To many, the prospect of combining manuscript editing departments with design and production is uncharted territory, and yet we have several examples of departments from presses large and small that have been set up this way for a decade or longer. We will hear both from longtime EDP departments and some that have been combined fairly recently about what they see as the advantages, disadvantages, and challenges (and some are here to evangelize). Whether we are from large or small presses, scholarly or more trade-oriented, at the end of the day we have the same concerns. The goal is to create efficiencies in the process, hopefully making life easier for everyone and encouraging a more integrated press-wide workflow.
Chair: Sylvia Mendoza, Editing, Design, and Production Manager, University of Arizona Press
Presenters: Neil Litt, Assistant Director and Director of Editing, Design, and Production, Princeton University Press; Jillian Downey, Director of Publishing Production, University of Michigan Press; Katherine Purple, Managing Editor, Purdue University Press [Presentation]; Jessica Ryan, Managing Editor, Duke University Press
From Copy-Editing to Public Discussion: How Annotation Can Reshape the Press
Traditionally, annotation tools have been thought of mostly in terms of post-publication review, but emerging use cases are being developed upstream in the areas of pre-publication authoring, peer review and copy-editing. Annotation from pre-publication thru post publication could change how publishers and scholars work and make for a more collaborative, efficient, and transparent creation of content. Not only could this provide more accurate recognition of who adds what value in the process, it could also support collaborative behaviors in scholarly communication. This panel will discuss current ideas and projects with the audience and their implications for the changing press.
Chair: Dan Whaley, Founder, Hypothes.is
Panelists: Panelists: Brian Hole, Founder, Ubiquity Press; Rebecca Welzenbach, TCP Outreach Librarian/ Journals Coordinator, University of Michigan Library/ Michigan Publishing; Curtis Christopher Fletcher, Project Manager, ANVC/ Scalar, University of Southern California
Joint Project Decision Making for Acquisitions and Marketing: Pivot Points/Pressure Points
How much and what kind of interplay occurs between the acquisitions and marketing departments at your press in deciding specifically which projects to acquire and publish? This panel aims to identify and explore, not prescribe, the practices and relationships that are at the heart of much of our work, and to question how the best project decisions can be made with the most confidence. Be ready to discuss the nitty-gritty of the processes and protocols by which the decision to publish is made.
Chair: Elaine Maisner, Senior Executive Editor, University of North Carolina Press
Panelists: Emily Hamilton, Assistant Director for Book Publishing, University of Minnesota Press; Dave Hamrick, Director, University of Texas Press; Gita Manaktala, Editorial Director, MIT Press
I Don’t Understand Your Brand Strategy: On Social Media as Performance
If media is a social animal, what the [bleep] is a brand identity? “We’re all the same, don’t you think?,” the artist Martha Rosler once remarked to Chris Kraus about their contemporary, Kathy Acker. Actually, we are not. When it comes to social media, as with real life, we all have something slightly different to offer; that’s why we continue to engage in conversations. Via one of them, this session explores what “performing” social media means for a university press in the twenty-first century.
Chairs/Presenters: Kristi McGuire, Web and New Media Editor, University of Chicago Press; Miranda Skarloff, Publicist, Getty Publications
Respondents: Mairead Case, author of See You in the Morning (Featherproof Books, 2015), columnist for Bookslut, PhD candidate in creative writing at the University of Denver; Danielle Sommer, Assistant Editor for Web and Communication at the Getty Research Institute and freelance writer/editor for NPR’s KQED and Art in America
[Watch session]
Things That Keep You Up at Night
On the heels of last year’s successful and interactive panel on editorial office challenges, this panel will allow attendees to share feedback on the specific obstacles and challenges to working with scholarly societies as part of journals publishing. Questions will be sourced in advance and addressed by a small but experienced panel and will include active participation by the audience. Panelists represent experience from both inside scholarly societies and the university press world.
Chair: Clydette Wantland, Journals Manager, University of Illinois Press
Panelists: Michael Regoli, Director of Electronic and Journals Publishing, Indiana University Press; Pam Wilson, Journals Manager, University of Hawai’i Press
12:00 – 1:00 PM Lunch
Speaker: Meredith Babb, AAUP President and Director of University Press of Florida
Read Babb’s inaugural address >
12:00 – 3:00 PM Poster Session
University Press Capacity-Building Grants
Be prepared for the discussion at the plenary session “How Can Universities and Their Presses Co-evolve?” Stop by the Grand Ballroom Foyer to view poster presentations describing the AAUP member press capacity-building projects recently funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
1:00 – 1:45 PM Break
1:45 – 3:00 PM Collaboration Labs
These interactive labs are designed to help staff members across departments from presses of all sizes develop strategies for solving common concerns while strengthening the AAUP community. Attendees are encouraged to sign-up in advance for the lab they expect to attend.
Acquisitions and Peer Review
Join in a collaborative discussion concerning peer review, beginning with a draft of a Best Practices document written by the newly created AAUP Acquisitions Committee and moving into future models of peer review, including alternatives such as open source reviewing techniques.
Facilitators: Dan Williams, Director, TCU Press; Mary Francis, Executive Editor, University of California Press
Crowdsourcing the Monograph
Is it possible for university presses to use crowdsourcing to fund monographs with interested parties donating money, time and skills? Would it be wise to set up an AAUP site that would allow post-peer-reviewed materials to be listed to ascertain if they can be funded in non-traditional ways? How could this work? How could authors become involved? Would only e-books be produced? Or is the monograph dead and new forms of publication replacing it?
Facilitator: Frances Pinter, CEO, Manchester University Press
Interdepartmental Peer-to-Peer Education within a Press
At University of Toronto Press (UTP), we are in the process of implementing an “inreach” program we call “P-Shift in Residence.” Members of UTP’s XML Workflow staff have begun regularly visiting our two book publishing offices (and eventually, perhaps, will expand to our outside publishing partners) to learn about their in-house processes, educate them about our processes, answer technological and procedural questions, and build relationships in a more concrete way than is possible via email. Could a similar model be useful for other presses aiming to break down in-house silos? What are the benefits, costs, and challenges of this approach?
Outcome: A template or model for an interdepartmental peer-to-peer learning program.
Suggested Collaborators: Other presses that do more than one kind of publishing (or other work) and are concerned about silo effects.
Facilitators: Sylvia Hunter Editorial Manager, Journals and Nicole Hilton, Manuscript Preparation Specialist, University of Toronto Press
Extending the Unique Michigan Experience: Local UPs Working Together
Many locally adjacent university presses have areas where there is overlap, giving an opportunity for collaboration and cross pollination of ideas. In Michigan, we have three university presses—all within driving distance from each other. Starting in 2014, we began to have quarterly meetings to “do more with less” and pool our resources. We would like to discuss our experiences with the AAUP community, and facilitate a workshop for other presses to strategize ways to work together. Through discussion, we would work to identify commonality and opportunities—whether it is publishing in common disciplines, being in close geographic proximity, or having shared authors. We would also like to invite our colleagues from Texas, who are doing similar endeavors, to participate.
Suggested Collaborators: Presses that share similar subject areas, i.e., regional books, and are looking for a way to share experiences and expenses.
Facilitators: Emily Nowak, Marketing & Sales Director, Wayne State; Julie Reaume, Marketing & Sales Director, Michigan State University Press; Renee Tambeau, Marketing, Sales & Outreach Director, University of Michigan Press/Michigan Publishing
Stretching Your Exhibits Budget Through Cooperation
We all know that exhibiting is expensive, and usually you need a critical mass of titles in a certain subject area before an exhibit in that area becomes economically feasible. Small presses especially are often limited in the number of conferences at which they can afford to staff a booth. Co-op companies such as Scholar’s Choice and Associated Book Exhibit fill the co-op exhibit need to some extent, but with a little cooperation among university presses, could we create affordable co-op opportunities for all at every meeting?
This collaboration lab will discuss whether university presses can create co-op exhibit opportunities amongst ourselves. Currently, the AAUP list is used to solicit table- or booth-sharing opportunities on a one-off basis. Perhaps UPs could create an internet repository of all meetings at which each participating press will be exhibiting in a given season. Via this portal, table- or booth-sharing opportunities could become apparent, and “orphan” titles could find a home at another press’s exhibit. Perhaps the expense of providing materials in conference attendee bags could be shared across presses by creating a single shared piece and splitting costs. Perhaps university presses could participate in a “punch-card” promotion where attendees must visit each press booth and to get a card punched; fully punched cards then go into a drawing for a free bundle of books from all presses. University presses might all contribute toward an hors d’oeuvres and drinks happy hour, or toward a large but discounted block of ad space in the conference program. The possibilities are endless!
Facilitator: John Brock, Marketing Coordinator, Texas Tech University Press
All in the Same Boat: Presses Coming Together Through Direct Mail
Presses that publish titles within the same focus areas and/or are geographically related often direct their marketing campaigns through similar avenues and routinely see other at the same academic meetings and place advertisements in the same publications. Each press inevitably provides its own direct mail marketing materials: seasonal catalogs, subject catalogs, flyers, etc. Instead of viewing each other as “friendly rivals,” this collaboration lab would discuss ways in which these presses could combine their individual efforts, especially regarding direct mail, to create a single, comprehensive subject-area catalog within a particular area. For example, presses that publish in Western history would come together to produce a single Western history catalog rather than each press producing its own catalog. Alternatively, presses in one state could come together to produce a catalog that highlights the titles they publish about their state. Presses that have undertaken this effort (or thought about it) are invited to brainstorm the desirability and logistics of combining direct mail pieces to present a united front to the buying reader.
Facilitators: Jada Rankin, Marketing Coordinator and Courtney Burkholder, Director, Texas Tech University Press
University Press Week and Collaborative Advocacy
The University Press Week campaign provides the opportunity to leverage press networks to advocate for the value of our community’s publishing mission, and speak to a varied range of important audiences. The UP Week Task Force wants your input in planning for UP Week 2015. How can the task force help presses make the most of the week locally? How can we practically coordinate regional, national, and international advocacy efforts?
Press directors, sales, marketing, and publicity folks are encouraged to attend with the goal of helping you improve your visibility during UP Week and also coming up with some concrete ideas for the 2015 campaign and provide advocacy tools for year-round use, including: national publicity outreach, reaching a larger international audience, ideas for infographics and social media campaigns, talking points, and UP Week events. Members of the task force will be on hand to talk about what our plans are so far for UP Week 2015 and to facilitate a lively discussion of advocacy in action.
Facilitators: Colleen Lanick, Publicity Manager, MIT Press and the University Press Week Committee
DIY Metadata (When You Want to Control Your Own Destiny/Don’t Want to Pay a Service)
A pay service makes it easier to supply ONIX but also hinders your ability to build and tailor your data to expand what you do (and with whom). The nuts and bolts of DIY Metadata raise a lot of questions about interacting with vendors (especially with ONIX 3.0 on the horizon), how/when to make updates on prices/discounts/other core metadata, how to give each vendor what they need how they need it, and how to meld e-metadata with p-metadata (especially when using e-vendors like CoreSource, Bibliovault, etc.). We’ll problem solve by sharing what we’re doing, how we’re doing it, and by looking for ways to streamline ONIX systems while still meeting high standards and verifications.
Collaborators: staff currently creating, updating, and sending ONIX metadata through in-house operations (or those who are invested in doing so) and who are primary point-persons in vendor relationship management. Target presses are Groups 2 and 3. We need at least five contributors to make the conversation move!
Facilitator: Rachael Levay, Marketing and Sales Director, University of Washington Press
Social Media/Web 2.0 Partnering
At its core, publicity has always been about ideas, collaboration, and communication. As curators of ideas, scholarly presses have a unique opportunity to capitalize on the new trend in public relations: collaborative campaigns centered on the creation of objective content that would serve to establish presses and authors as thought leaders among multiple audiences and stakeholders.
Collaborators: Participation would be from press marketing/design professionals from a variety of disciplines (advertising, publicity, book or ad designers, social media interns, etc.)
Possible outcomes: A limited scope project organized around a subject or theme agreed upon by the group, formation of a committee, a media tip sheet of prime sources, or roadmap for a collaborative campaign.
Facilitator: Holli L. Koster, Publicity and Advertising Manager, Texas A&M University Press
Mentoring and Career Development
This year the AAUP’s Professional Development Committee initiated a mentorship program. The program matches mid- and senior-level staff members with staff members who are new to the field or the association and gives all participants a variety of opportunities to interact over the course of the annual meeting. After discussing how the committee developed this collaborative program, we will develop additional ideas for fostering career development among AAUP member institutions. Should the mentorship program be expanded beyond the confines of the annual meeting? Are there other ways of fostering collaboration among member presses on the issue of career development? Current mentors and mentees are encouraged to attend and share their thoughts about the current program. Anyone interested in developing collaborative mechanisms for developing our profession is invited to participate.
Facilitator: Gianna Mosser, Acquisitions Editor, Northwestern University Press
Sharing Practices in Development
Facilitators: Mary Rose Muccie, Director, Temple University Press; Kathryn Conrad, Director, University of Arizona Press
3:00 – 3:30 PM Refreshment Break
3:30 – 5:00 PM Plenary
How Can Universities and Their Presses Co-evolve?
As higher education evolves to retain relevance in an ever-changing landscape of knowledge creation and student education, we too are reinventing ourselves to best serve our scholarly authors and their readers. Questions about the direction of higher education can border on existential—a few brash predictions even question the long-term viability of the university as we know it. In this novel session, we will explore the intersection between the ways in which universities are preparing for the future and how presses can and are helping to define that future.
After AAUP President-elect Meredith Babb frames the issues for us, two leaders in higher education scholarship, one from a research university and the other from a liberal arts college, will share their observations about where change appears to be leading the academy—and how the academy is responding. Within that context, we will next hear “elevator pitches” from all eight of the AAUP member presses who have received the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s recent capacity-building grants. And then, our two keynote speakers will join thought leaders from within our community as moderator Peter Berkery hosts a candid and free-wheeling discussion of how well these initiatives are likely to align us with the future needs of scholarship.
Moderator: Peter Berkery, Executive Director, AAUP
Speakers: Meredith Babb, Director, University Press of Florida; Jill Tiefenthaler, President, Colorado College; James V Maher, Provost Emeritus and Distinguished Service Professor of Physics, Senior Science Advisor
Panelist: Lisa Bayer, Director, University of Georgia Press
[Watch session]