On 6 June, the Association of European University Presses (AEUP) hosted an open board meeting at BiblioCon 2024, the largest library trade fair in Hamburg, Germany. The event was organised for university presses and library-run publishing services from the D-A-CH region and aimed to identify strategies for gaining momentum through greater institutional embeddedness in research libraries.
Margo Bargheer, Chair of the AEUP Executive Board, opened the session by explaining why the meeting was held at BiblioCon. AEUP’s presence at this important conference underlines its commitment to fostering stronger relationships between university presses, promoting cooperation and sharing knowledge to achieve common goals in a dynamic publishing landscape.
We then discussed how AEUP connects and networks, AEUP’s involvement in international projects such as DIAMAS, CRAFT-OA and PALOMERA, contributing to the global discourse on scholarly publishing and fostering international collaboration.
In addition to its contribution to these projects, AEUP organises ad-hoc webinars and a biennial conference. The next one will take place in May 2025. In the run-up to the 2025 International Conference, AEUP is seeking input from participants on key issues such as sustainability in the context of business models. This collaborative approach ensures that the conference addresses the most pressing issues facing university presses today.
The final part of the meeting was dedicated to networking and getting to know each other. This fostered a sense of community and cooperation among university presses and library-run publishing services. One goal of the meeting was to explore how university presses and library publishing services can leverage existing library network organisational structures to improve operations. Libraries are well versed in building consortia to acquire content, a practice that has proven beneficial in securing better terms and enabling smaller players to access resources they otherwise couldn’t. By applying this concept to publishing services, libraries can use their consortia memberships and networks to create shared services and leverage specific expertise.
The AEUP invites all BiblioCon delegates, especially those responsible for or planning to offer publishing services within their libraries, as well as smaller scholarly presses, to join its efforts to shape scholarly communication in Europe.