The Library Happens Elsewhere: Using and Adapting Library Workflows as Infrastructure for Stockholm University Press

By

Anders Söderbäck

Description

The web, fundamentally a distributed hypermedia application, immediately accessible from billions of computers worldwide, provides many challenges for even forward thinking libraries. Open Access and Patron Driven Acquisitions marks the beginning of the end of libraries as we know them. On the horizon, new models of research, education and publishing promises an end to the things we once held dear: Control, Collections, Journals, Elsevier and the Dewey Decimal System.

While the library is now found in the researchers computers and reference management systems, the former library organizations take on new responsibilities in supporting research and researchers. From 2013, the Stockholm University Library is responsible for Stockholm University Press – a new publishing house for open access digital and print on demand books. SUP builds on the library’s  previous efforts in publishing, digitization and repository management, but adds more power, focus, and last but not least a clear mandate from the university. This presentation describes the road to SUP, the prides and pitfalls of building a new university press on library workflows, and in what changes this has brought on the library. It will also present the current infrastructure (technical and organizational) used by SUP for publishing and dissemination, as well as a discussion on where SUP and publishing (and university libraries) are heading.

Anders Söderbäck works as Head of the Department of Publishing at Stockholm University Library. Apart from publishing, the departments responsibilities includes repository, metadata, digitization and discovery services. Before joining the Stockholm University, Anders worked at the National Library of Sweden as coordinator for the Libris union catalog.