From October 7th – 9th, 2014, IR admins from institutions across the country came to our offices in Berkeley, California for our second annual “Scholarly Publishing Certification Course: A Training Program for Library-Led Publishing Initiatives.” According to our participants the course was “extremely helpful,” featuring “a variety of excellent presentations,” workshops, technical training sessions, and opportunities for admins to meet one-on-one with their bepress consultants.
Martin Kelly, Assistant Director for Digital Collections at Colby College, said “I have come away with ideas for reinvigorating and repositioning Digital Commons @ Colby within the college. I have also picked up many ways to improve our current collections and pending projects.”
“It was great to hear from other IR managers / share experiences and talk about what works,” said Karen Bjork, Digital Initiatives Coordinator, Library, at Portland State University. Every participant reported that it was very helpful to work in person with their Consulting Services representative at bepress. “It was wonderful to be able to talk to her about issues and successes,” said Karen of her consultant.
“We had several opportunities to ask questions, so I am leaving with all my questions answered,” said Jacklyn Rander, Publishing Services Manager at Grand Valley State University. She added that even though GVSU already has a thriving publishing program, “The course was helpful in gaining new ideas on how to improve our program and hearing what peer universities are doing with their publishing programs.”
“It was very helpful to have a lot of this info as we prepare to launch [a publishing program], rather than back-training when problems arise,” stated Andrea Wright, Science & Outreach Librarian at Furman University.
Topics for the course ranged from copyright and policy considerations to pitching a publishing business plan to provosts. Participants explored tools for managing submissions and peer review, defined their goals and action plans for their publishing initiatives, and developed a network of professional relationships with other library-publishers. We’re excited to announce our class of graduates:
Joshua Beatty, SUNY Plattsburgh
Karen Bjork, Portland State University
Martin Kelly, Colby College
Jacklyn Rander, Grand Valley State University
Lawrence Ross, George Washington University Law School
Andrea Wright, Furman University
Congratulations, Graduates!
We’re looking forward to reviewing all the helpful feedback we got in preparation for our upcoming spring IR Manager Certification course. Keep an eye out for more information on that in the near future or email outreach@bepress.com for more information.
