University presses in libraries: potential for successful marriages

University libraries and university presses are key components of the scholarly communication process. Over the past decade there have been huge changes in scholarly publishing, reading and the relationship between presses and libraries. Many factors have influenced the change in scholarly communication and institutional responses reflect experiences within individual situations. The new digital environment and open access movement are two of the most significant changes that have led to radical rethinking and changes in roles and services. Over a decade ago the concept of scholarly communication was broadly defined as connecting academics and students with the information environment: By scholarly communication we mean the study of how scholars in any field (e.g. physical, biological, social, and behavioural sciences, humanities, technology) use and disseminate information through formal and informal channels. The study of scholarly communication includes the growth of scholarly information, the relationships among research areas and disciplines, the information needs and uses of individual user groups, and the relationships among formal and informal methods of communication. (Borgman, 1990 p. 13‐4) Libraries had a role in this space – one that was perceived as vital " Libraries are and will remain central to the management of scholarly communication for the foreseeable future " (Cummings et al, 1992 p. xv). The role of libraries in creating digital libraries was seen as an extension of the work traditionally undertaken by libraries – " where resources are selected, collected, organised, preserved, and accessed in support of a user community " (Borgman et al., 1996). Discussion focused on the role of libraries in terms of purchasing of publications, serving as gateways to information, participating in discussion of policy issues such as copyright, working with academics to produce new scholarly outputs and working with publishers on new models of scholarly outputs (Okerson 1995, Okerson 1994). Publishers published, libraries purchased with relatively separate roles. By 2014 the role of libraries in publishing had changed significantly. Steps were small but significant. By 2008 US research libraries were seen as offering digital services in the publishing space with very limited outputs, professionalism and skills. Libraries publishing scholarly outputs were embryonic " numbers of titles research libraries are publishing represent a very thin slice of the scholarly publishing pie " (Hahn, 2008 p. 5), The ARL study found the " modesty of the approach was Library publishing services have few pretensions to the production of elaborate publications and libraries pursue …