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Against the Grain is your key to the latest news about libraries, publishers, book jobbers, and subscription agents. Our goal is to link publishers, vendors, and librarians by reporting on the issues, literature, and people that impact the world of books and journals.

Against The Grain Journal

Charleston Library Conference 

Mar 13, 2017

Nancy Maron Interview

On today’s show, we will hear from Nancy Maron, President and Founder of BlueSky to BluePrint, a strategic consulting firm helping publishers, librarians, and leaders of digital initiatives to develop sustainable business models. Website

Comments from today’s co-host:

You know, Bill Hannay is going to be a hard act to follow from the last episode, but I’m going to do my best. No singing though! I’m Leah Hinds, Assistant Director of the Charleston Conference, and the Director of Marketing and Promotions and Editor of the ATG NewsChannel website for Against the Grain. I’ve worked in various roles and projects with the Conference and ATG since 2005. I love the changing nature of event planning and organization for the conference – there are new challenges and new people to work with each year so it’s always a little different. But most of all, I really admire Katina’s philosophy behind the whole thing – bringing librarians, publishers, vendors, consultants, and others together on a level playing field, giving a platform for new voices, and inviting diverse viewpoints across the information and scholarly communication industry. That also holds true for Against the Grain, both in print and online, and this allows the conversations to continue throughout the year and not just for a week in Charleston.

A little personal background, I live on a small farm in rural SC about 2 hours from Charleston. I started my day with twin baby goats fighting over who got to sit in my lap, which was just about the cutest thing ever. I’m a volunteer with our local 4-H club and I go to lots of shows and meetings with my kids and our various animals.

Today, I’m chatting with Nancy L. Maron. Nancy is President and Founder of BlueSky to BluePrint, a strategic consulting firm helping publishers, librarians, and leaders of digital initiatives to develop sustainable business models. This grew out of a career spent working with and for publishers, libraries, and booksellers, and an ongoing fascination with all the ways that new technologies can influence the way we create, consume, and enjoy information.

She is author of several studies concerning publishing, digital humanities, and business models including The Costs of Publishing Monographs (2016) and sustaining the Digital Humanities: Host Institution Support beyond the Start-up Phase (2014), and with co-author Kim Schmelzinger of the Monograph Costing Tool, released by AAUP in 2016. In 2012, she joined the Board of the Yonkers Public Library, a three-branch system serving a city of nearly 200,000 residents. As Board President since 2014, she has spearheaded several key initiatives, including a national search for Library Director, the 2015 Library Gala, and development of the YPL Strategic Plan, 2017-2021.


Links to articles by Nancy Maron and her guest authors:

December 2016/January 2017 Issue of ATG:

The Value of Publishing: What's Worth Paying For?
Guest Editor, Nancy L. Maron, President and Founder of BlueSky to BluePrint

Featured Articles:

I'll Take Sifting and Winnowing for $1000, Alex
By Dennis Lloyd, Director, University of Wisconsin Press

Building a List
By Richard Carlin, Executive Editor, OUP

Lucid Prose, Good Timing, Happy Authors: Steps Toward Successful Editorial Production
By Jenya Weinreb, Managing Editor, Yale University Press

Dust Jackets to Dust?
By John Scherer, Director, University of North Carolina Press

Making Connections, Building Community
By Kathryn Conrad, Director, University of Arizona Press

Small but Mighty: How University Presses Bring Academic Ideas to the World
By Jessica Lawrence-Hurt, International & Institutional Sales & Marketing Manager, The MIT Press

Adding Media, Adding Value
By Susan Doerr, Assistant Director, Digital Publishing and Operations, University of Minnesota Press

Ditching the Guillotine: An Education in Accessibility
By Becky Brasington Clark, Director, Publishing Office, Library of Congress

The Singularity of the Book
By Carey C. Newman, Director, Baylor University Press 

The Costs of Monographs (report)


The Monograph Costing Tool (Excel workbook and User's Guide)

In the news this week:

In an article published in InsideHigherEd.com, it is reported that The University of California, Berkeley, will cut off public access to tens of thousands of video lectures and podcasts in response to a U.S. Justice Department order that it make the educational content accessible to people with disabilities. Today, the content is available to the public on YouTube, iTunes U and the university’s webcast.berkeley site.

On March 15, the university will begin removing the more than 20,000 audio and video files from those platforms -- a process that will take three to five months -- and require users sign in with University of California credentials to view or listen to them. Read the article

The Charleston Conference welcomes proposals for pre-conference sessions at our upcoming 2017 event to be held November 6 – 10. Pre-conferences will be scheduled on the Monday or Tuesday before the main Charleston Conference. We are also open to new formats and ideas, such as post-conference sessions on Friday afternoon or Saturday. These are intended to be in-depth learning sessions that will offer a deeper, more thorough look at topics related to collection development and acquisitions. The proposal deadline is April 28 and space is very limited. Please review our proposal guidelines and submit your ideas online here.

Adam Chesler has been promoted to Director, Global Sales, AIP Publishing. Adam will lead the Global Sales and Sales Support teams with a keen focus on driving sales activity to academic, government, and corporate libraries around the world. Adam has been with AIP Publishing for a year and a half and has made some significant contributions to the organization as a Senior Sales Manager.

In addition to his contributions, Adam is a conference director for the Charleston Conference. When he is not working Adam can be found eating ice cream, watching baseball and volunteering at his public library (and on rare occasions all three at once).

Michael Duffy has been appointed Director of Library Sales, SAGE Publishing. He will oversee SAGE’s North American Library Sales Team. Michael joined SAGE Publishing as Library Sales Manager in 2011 and quickly moved from Senior Library Sales Manager to District Library Sales Manager to his current role as Director. Previously, he worked in sales at Thomson Reuters and in editorial capacities at Oxford University Press and Wolters Kluwer, among other organizations. Michael holds a Master of Science degree in Publishing from Pace University.

Two librarians in the big news recently! Our Librarian of Congress, Dr. Carla Hayden was recently profiled in the New Yorker, February 19, 2017 by Sarah Larson. It is inspirational to see what Dr. Hayden has accomplished and we are sure that there is much more greatness to come! Read the article.

Another Librarian in the news, our 2016 keynote speaker and the president elect of ALA, Jim Neal, had an op ed in The Hill about fair use, entitled “Balance is Everything.” Read the article.

We also have a video of Jim Neal on the Charleston Library Conference website, where he as interviewed as part of the “Views from the Penthouse Suite” series. You can also listen to Jim Neal in episode two of the podcast.

And finally, OCLC has appointed Monika Sengul-Jones as Wikipedian-in-Residence for Wikipedia + Libraries: Better Together, a project led by OCLC's WebJunction program.

Sengul-Jones will work with WebJunction to design and deliver an online training program that will introduce U.S. public librarians to the innerworkings of Wikipedia this fall. The training will enable librarians to edit Wikipedia, guide patrons in its use and lead local Wikipedia-based community engagement programs with confidence. In her role, Sengul-Jones will also foster connections between public librarians and Wikipedia's volunteer editor community. Read the press release.