AAUP 2014: Pre-Meeting Events

If you've just joined us, welcome! The AAUP 2014 Registrants Newsletter provides periodic updates, news, and tips to help you make the most of your time in New Orleans. You can expect notice of program changes, information about speakers, recommended readings, and much more.

WHAT'S HAPPENING BEFORE IT ALL HAPPENS

In this second issue, we're focusing on the pre-meeting events and seminars that are planned for June 22. Space is still available, and you can update your registration to include a workshop and encourage your colleagues to register for these essential professional development opportunities.

Let's Get Analytical: Measuring Your Marketing

This half-day morning workshop will help participants maximize the time and money spent on tracking online and social media marketing. AAUP experts Danny Bellet (Penn State), Jeff Colosino (National Academies), Bonnie Russell (Wayne State), and Dean Smith (Project MUSE) will share advice and experience. Daniel Lemin, Strategy and Metrics Lead at Convince & Convert Digital Marketing Advisors, will also be on hand to offer his expertise. There will be plenty of time for Q&A, so bring questions!

Already registered? Take a moment to fill out the advance survey that will help the speakers tailor their presentation to attendee interests. Responses are due today, May 23.

Thanks to AAUP's Marketing Committee, chaired by Laura Baich (Indiana), for organizing this workshop.

Publishing Open and Affordable Textbooks

The Library Relations Committee, chaired by Donna Dixon (SUNY), has designed this Sunday morning workshop specifically for libraries and presses interested in finding solutions to a fast-growing public policy concern. Goals for the workshop include bridging campus cultures, from the service orientation of a library to the business orientation of a press; better understanding issues involved with publishing open texts and course materials; and developing collaboration strategies that build on complementary strengths.

Facilitator Melanie Hawks, Learning and Development Manager at Marriott Library at the University of Utah, will lead this session. Her participation is sponsored by the Association of Research Libraries.

Journals Now: Challenges and Opportunities

More than 60 AAUP member presses collectively publish nearly 1,000 journals, but in recent years AAUP's professional development opportunities for journals staff have been limited. The Scholarly Journals Committee, co-chaired by Anne Marie Corrigan (Toronto) and Lauren Crocker (Wayne State), has worked hard to create a pre-meeting workshop and numerous sessions at the Annual Meeting for journals staff. On Sunday afternoon, the workshop "Journals now: Challenges and Opportunities" will review the current state of journals publishing and consider opportunities for the future.

Attendees will learn from experts Barbara Meyers Ford, President of Meyers Consulting Services, and October Ivins, Principal of Ivins eContent Solutions. The last hour will feature breakout sessions on attendee-suggested topics, including one breakout with Charles Brower, Senior Managing Editor of HSS Journals (Duke), on manuscript and editorial--if you have specific topics you'd like to discuss in this breakout, email charles.brower@dukeupress.edu. Send additional suggestion for breakout sessions to Jill Rodgers, jillr@mit.edu, by June 3.

Advice for Ebook Complexities and Quality Control

Creating EPUB files can be frustrating work. Sometimes the process works and a file can be pushed out with little to no hassle, but other times you spend hours banging your head against the wall trying to figure out why that table just won't behave.

The Design and Production Committee, chaired by Carol Stein (ASCSA), has organized this afternoon workshop to help production and design staff work through some of the technical frustrations of developing ebooks. Joshua Tallent, Chief eBook Architect with Firebrand Technologies, will guide participants through this hands-on session for which participants are asked to bring a laptop if you would like to try your hand at various demonstrated techniques.

AAUP Press Directors Meeting

Increased focus on advocacy was identified as press directors' number one priority for AAUP two years in a row. In response, Peter Berkery (AAUP), MaryKatherine Callaway (Louisiana State), and Barbara Kline Pope (National Academies) have organized this June 22 afternoon session to help directors demonstrate their presses' value, and to position their presses as important contributors to institutional mission, vision, and goals. The University of Utah's Melanie Hawks will facilitate, sponsored by the Association of Research Libraries. There is no charge to attend, but participants must be a press director at an AAUP member press.

BUSINESS MEETING

The AAUP Annual Business Meeting will also be held on June 22, at 4:30 PM. All are welcome to attend, with representatives from Full and Associate Member presses asked to cast a vote. Supporting documents will be posted online by June 12.

University Press Session at ATLA

The American Theological Library Association (ATLA) is holding their annual meeting in New Orleans in the days before AAUP 2014. The ATLA invited AAUP to organize a session at their meeting on the morning of Saturday, June 21, on trends in university press publishing. Patrick Alexander (Penn State) and Carey Newman (Baylor) (other panelists TBA) will take the opportunity to speak, but also listen, at "Discovery & Acquisition in Theological Libraries: A Conversation with University Presses."

This session will open up a discussion about the tools university presses use to inform the library market, and how libraries discover and make acquisitions decisions about university press content. Several AAUP members are exhibiting at the ATLA--if you're attending, join the conversation at 8 AM on June 21 at the InterContinental New Orleans.

Hotel Update

The New Orleans Marriott is sold out during the Annual Meeting. Affordable lodging is still available a quick walk away from the meeting hotel. AAUP has compiled a list and map of alternate options.

Book your travel soon!

Featured Session: Textbooks and Course Materials

As an excellent follow-up to the "Open & Affordable Textbooks" workshop, this session will explore the rapidly changing landscape of learning materials. The recent BISG report, Student Attitudes Toward Content in Higher Ed, will help inform discussions around the role of ancillary materials, websites, and apps; and the impact of new distribution models, text rentals, custom texts, and course management system integration.

MAKING AN IMPACT ON LEARNING

WITH TEXTBOOKS AND COURSE MATERIALS

Monday, June 23, 3:30 PM

Chair: Tony Sanfilippo, Assistant Director, Marketing and Sales Director, Penn State University Press
Panelists: Gita Manaktala, Editorial Director, MIT Press; Sara Sapire, New Business and Product Development Manager, Yale University Press; Robert Staats, Director of Client Development, Nielsen Book Company

Recommended Reading

The Nation's Scott Sherman has recently published a lengthy exploration of the position of university presses: "University Presses Under Fire: How the Internet and slashed budgets have endangered one of higher education's most important institutions."

The piece--an in-depth look at cultural and technological changes affecting our community (though none of the UP representatives quoted seem to believe we're endangered by the Internet!)--has inspired significant discussions in other online forums. Rick Anderson's piece at the Scholarly Kitchen, "University Presses: 'Under Fire' or Just Under the Gun (Like the Rest of Us)?" is the site of a lively exchange.

And to really contextualize the issues considered in both of these articles, we suggest reading the 1994 Presidential Address of retiring director Bruce Wilcox (Massachusetts). As much as has changed in 20 years, the challenges facing scholarly communications--and the intelligence and commitment with which university presses embrace those as opportunities--is strikingly familiar. (In fact, for unnerving déjà vu, the New York Times just this morning published an article on another Portuguese-speaking World Cup star!)

Thank you for registering for AAUP 2014! This newsletter is an ongoing source of updates and highlights for attendees preparing for the conference. An option to unsubscribe is below.