York Digital Journals found a benefit for the whole library was that the library became a recognised partner in journal publishing at the University, ‘bringing the library to the table in a new capacity’. However, a successful library publishing initiative also has a number of challenges, the key ones being staffing, expertise and funding.

Many library publishing initiatives, such as those at the Universities of South Florida and Huddersfield, took on open access publishing without any increase in staff – if the numbers of journals increases as the University Press gains prestige there is a sustainability issue here and these will be discussed in 4.6.

Expertise is an issue, especially if the library publisher is to be considered a serious publisher. Library publishers need to be clear where the line is drawn between the roles and responsibility of the library and the editorial staff of the journal or monograph authors. For example, content and editorial control, such as soliciting submissions, peer review, copyediting, decisions on layout, scheduling and correspondence.

Finally, funding is a significant challenge for the library publisher, while many initiatives are initially subsidised from the library operating budget or internal/external project money this is ultimately unsustainable and alternative funding is required if the publishing initiative is to develop and become sustainable. A traditional revenue generating, or even cost neutral business model is of course a high risk strategy to pursue given the open access model and the specialised nature of the monograph library publishers produce and the lack of article processing charges or advertising in the journals and conference proceedings.

4.1. The new university presses
4.2 Hosting
4.3 Librarian expertise
4.4 Publishing
4.5 Challenges
4.6 Sustainability

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