As library-based publishing and OER programs mature, they encounter a predictable set of operational, technical, and strategic challenges that are often under-discussed until they arise. This panel brings together representatives from several institutions who have navigated common “growing pains” and developed sustainable strategies to strengthen their publishing programs over time. Panelists will share real-world approaches to issues such as supporting authors who start but do not complete projects; managing user accounts and contributor turnover; planning for new editions and post-grant sustainability; establishing or refining peer-review, copyediting, and accessibility workflows; and responsibly stewarding student-authored open pedagogy publications. Panelists will also discuss challenges that emerge as publishing programs mature, including supporting faculty who have limited time or digital publishing experience; coordinating multi-step pre-publication editorial processes; maintaining consistent metadata and licensing practices; ensuring accessibility compliance at scale; supporting teaching & learning initiatives and improving student success; and marketing and promoting successful publications. Examples may include implementing structured author onboarding, developing editorial style guidelines, introducing checklists or QA workflows, integrating analytics to monitor impact, incorporating formative assessment opportunities directly into teaching and learning material, and achieving tighter integration between published content with an institution’s learning management system. The session will be structured as a panel discussion with panelists discussing specific challenges, followed by concrete demonstrations of strategies, workflows, and tools they’ve adopted to address the challenge. Solutions will encompass a range of ongoing approaches, including the creation or adoption of policies, workflows, training and development opportunities, and software tools (including Pressbooks) that have enabled library publishers to better accomplish their key priorities. The session will include a moderated discussion and audience Q&A, giving attendees the opportunity to reflect on lessons learned, share their own experiences, and explore how these strategies can be applied in their own institutions.
Many downstream users of open educational resources (OER) have concerns about the availability of supplemental materials such as presentation slides, homework, and lecture notes. Authors can make these materials available in several ways; however, many of the solutions commonly used obfuscate the availability of materials or put undue pressure on authors. In this presentation, we introduce Digital Press +, a repository that houses supplemental materials for books published by the Digital Press, a publishing unit housed in the Iowa State University Library. The Digital Press+, funded by Iowa State University’s Course Affordability Jump Start Initiative, was developed in partnership with the technology developers at the Open Library of Humanities alongside several updates to the team’s Books plug-in. The project connects content in the Digital Press’ repository plug-in to the materials in their books catalog, allowing the simple cross-linking of connected materials. This also allows for external submissions, which can facilitate the sharing of new materials to supplement and support previously published OER. The collaborators who worked on the development of this project will share how the Digital Press + utilizes the capabilities of the linked repository and books plug-ins for the publication of OER. For others interested in supporting open source development projects like this one, the presenters will share the process by which the team got grant funding for their work, the steps it took to develop the project, and other potential use cases of OLH’s repository plug-in for library publishers.
In the spring of 2026, the Open Education Network offered Pub101 for Authors for the first time. An adaptation of Pub101, an informal and popular orientation to open textbook publishing for librarians and project managers, Pub101 for Authors was designed to support potential authors who may not have local publishing support, as well as be a building block for librarians who may appreciate infrastructure to scale their program. Using community input from Open Education Network Tea Times and a hands-on 2024 Library Publishing Forum session, the Pub101 Committee adapted the existing open curriculum for an author audience, and identified guest presenters to speak to curricular themes and share their experiences. In this session, we’ll talk about how the adaptation process worked, including how we chose to integrate generative AI considerations into the curriculum, and reflect on the eight hosted synchronous sessions. We’ll talk about what went well, what we plan to revise, and discuss plans for the future. As part of that reflection, we will invite feedback and suggestions for how we can continue to improve and support the OER publishing community.
