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New SPARC Guide and Online Community Aid Library-University Press CollaborationFor immediate release For more information, contact: New SPARC Guide and Online Community Aid Library-University Press CollaborationFree 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; 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 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. ### SPARC |
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