The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) has released a guide titled Campus-based Publishing Partnerships: A guide to critical issues, by Raym Crow. The guide is the core of a new website, the Campus-based Publishing Resource Center, designed by a panel of advisors from the library and university press communities to support successful publishing partnerships.
It has been observed campus publishing partnerships can offer universities greater control over the intellectual products that they help create. But to fully realise this potential, partnerships need to evolve from ad hoc working alliances to stable, long-term collaborations. The new guide will help partnering organisations 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 also help libraries, presses and other campus units to structure successful partnerships and to recognise 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.
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.
