Today's guest post is by Samantha Rayner, Director of the Centre for Publishing, UCL and Principal Investigator on the AHRC/British Library Academic Book of the Future Project, and Rebecca Lyons, Research Associate for the AHRC/ British Library Academic Book of the Future Project.

The Academic Book of the Future is a two-year AHRC and British Library-funded project investigating the academic book in its current and emerging contexts. The Project has worked closely and collaboratively with a wide range of community partners, including individuals and groups from academia, publishing, bookselling, libraries, and other areas invested in the academic book in order to explore its possible future(s).

For the inaugural Academic Book Week (9-16 November 2015) we worked with Palgrave Macmillan on an innovative publication – a Palgrave Pivot called The Academic Book of the Future. It was innovative for the incredibly ambitious deadlines involved; the interdisciplinary (even experimental) nature of the content; the fact that most of the authors are not academics; and that it is Open Access, which makes it completely free to download.

The Project found the process of collaboratively creating this publication incredibly fruitful, not just in terms of the partnerships formed or the content created, but also for the new directions for working that were suggested by the entire process. It was a successful experiment in Practice-as-Research: the Project had dipped its toe in the water of one of the possible futures of the academic book, and had found the experience hugely rewarding.

Now, co-editors Dr Samantha Rayner and Rebecca Lyons are building upon this experience and working with UCL Press on an exciting new publication project called The Academic Book of the Future. As with the Palgrave Pivot, the spirit of innovation and collaboration – as well as academic rigour – is key. This new peer-reviewed publication will take the form of a BOOC (Book as Open Online Content – a term coined by UCL’s Professor Melissa Terras), which means that the content will take a range of forms and formats – traditional and otherwise – including textual pieces such as chapters and reports, but also videos, blogs, and even Storifies and curated email conversations.

We are delighted to be working with UCL Press on this project – they have fully embraced the spirit of innovation involved, and have offered both flexibility and dynamism in terms of the technical aspects of this new type of publication (the BOOC), as well as the consummate professionalism expected from a university press. Added to this, half of the Project team is based at UCL, and we are thrilled to work with this bright new internal partner.

We have written more extensively about why we’re publishing this BOOC with UCL Press on the LSE Review of Books blog, here: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2016/03/23/feature-the-academic-book-of-the-future-practice-as-research-by-rebecca-lyons/

About the authors

Samantha Rayner is Director of the Centre for Publishing and Senior Lecturer in Publishing at UCL. In addition, she is Principal Investigator on the AHRC/British Library Academic Book of the Future Project. Rebecca Lyons is Research Associate for the AHRC/ British Library Academic Book of the Future Project.

Today's guest post is by Chris Penfold, UCL Press Commissioning Editor.

In early June I attended ‘El Pub: The 20th International Conference on Electronic Publishing’, hosted by the University of Göttingen. The conference brought together publishers, librarians, archivists and researchers to discuss the current – largely European – landscape of electronic scholarly publishing.

Although the papers varied greatly, open access was the dominant theme across the panels. The ECRs, in particular, spoke of a policy-driven need to make government-funded research available to the public without exception. They also spoke of the well-known predicament ECRs face in deciding where and how to publish. Many have the desire to share their data and reach a wide audience via an open access platform, yet their fear of the data being misappropriated – not necessarily for commercial means but by other researchers who might use it to write ‘better’ papers – is a growing concern.

Furthermore, they expressed frustration that their career progression is dependent upon publishing in subscription journals with high impact factors, which they feel is a system designed to undermine the feasibility of open access. This system can only be broken when open access journals have built up enough traction to compete with the high impact journals, or when a universal method of quality assessment emerges to replace the metric-intensive scale currently employed.

Today's guest post is by Lara Spicher, UCL Press Publishing Manager.

The Gregynog Colloquium is the annual residential conference of WHELF (Wales Higher Education Libraries Forum) and HEWIT (Higher Education Wales Information Technology) where Welsh HE librarians and IT specialists gather to share knowledge and ideas and to hear about new initiatives from other institutions. Drawing around 188 colleagues annually from Welsh HE libraries, the Gregynog Colloquium is held in the stunning location of Gregynog Hall in Powys, a 750-acre estate and national nature reserve with a fascinating cultural history, including its own private press. Gregynog is being established as an independent charitable trust to safeguard the important academic and cultural heritage of Gregynog under a University of Wales initiative, with support from the Gwendoline and Margaret Davies Charity, the sisters who owned Gregynog in the 20^th century and established its cultural initiatives. It is used throughout the year for residential courses for students of Welsh universities. I was invited to speak about the work of UCL Press, and about the general increase in new open access university presses being established within libraries, both in the UK and abroad.

The Hall was rebuilt in the 19th century by the Sudeley family who were pioneers in the use of concrete as a building material. The Sudeleys owned the Gregynog Estate at the time but their primary seat was in Toddington in Gloucestershire. The innovative use of concrete can be seen throughout the building. The banisters are a particular achievement: I must admit, I don’t normally pay particular attention banisters, but these are worth a mention. Rather than being a traditional wooden handrail, the banisters at Gregynog are actually a handrail shaped groove in the wall, molded out of concrete.

After several hundred years of private ownership, in 1913 a huge estate sale saw Gregynog’s farms, cottages and woodlands sold off, many to their tenants. Gregynog Hall might have been demolished had not the wealthy Davies sisters acquired it in 1920 to become the headquarters of their enterprise to bring art, music and creative skills to the people of Wales in the aftermath of the First World War. For twenty years the house was full of music, fine furniture and ceramics, hand-printed books from the Gregynog Press and, most extraordinary of all, the sisters’ collection of paintings by artists such as Monet, Cezanne and Van Gogh. Leading lights, such as George Bernard Shaw and Gustav Holst visited during these years for musical concerts – or simply to enjoy the beautiful gardens and woodland walks. At the end of the 1950s, after wartime use as a Red Cross convalescent home, Gregynog was bequeathed to the University of Wales as a conference centre. It welcomed its first students in 1963 and they’ve been coming ever since. The Gregynog Press, a private press founded by the sisters, printed the works of many rising stars in the world of illustration during its years of operation, and is still running to this day.

The Hall is still home to stunning artefacts and works of art. One of the original printing presses used by the Gregynog Press is on display in the Hall, as are works by many of the most famous artists who contributed works to the Press in its heyday in the 1920s and 1930s – Agnes Miller Parker, Blair Hughes-Stanton, David Jones and Gertrude Hermes. The Davies sisters’ works of art are on display in their drawing room where the drinks reception was held during the conference. It is a place that feels slightly lost in time, where an Agatha Christie murder mystery would not be out of place. The Davies sisters’ library is still in situ, and contains a collection of books that anyone interested in the arts and humanities would be proud to own – not necessarily because of the rarity of the books in the collection but because of the breadth: classic works of fiction, monographs on significant artists, and works of philosophy, history and classics fill two large rooms and the corridors.

I was only there for the first day of the conference itself, which started with a keynote speech by Chris Banks, Director of Library Services at Imperial College London, who spoke inspiringly about the academic library of the future. This was followed by presentations by Steve Williams of Swansea University, and Paul Jeorett of Wrexham Glyndwr University, the latter talking about the rise and fall of international students from different parts of the world, and the potential of the outcome of the Brexit referendum to change the international student cohort figures significantly (it is hard now to remember a time when Brexit seemed just a remote possibility). He highlighted the important work librarians do to help international students.

I was sorry I couldn’t stay at Gregynog longer. The impressive surroundings and significant cultural associations, the fascinating history, the stunning location, and the association with a long-running private press, made this a memorable occasion. I enjoyed meeting the conference attendees and the staff at Gregynog, who were knowledgeable and passionate about Gregynog and its history.

What was most abundant and welcome, although slightly difficult to get used to, was the silence: there were no sirens, no traffic, there were no TVs in the rooms and no lifts, all the noises one usually hears in a typical urban hotel. All I could hear as the sun rose were the birds and the sheep.

In a semi-regular blog series, we’ll introduce you to the people behind the press.  Today we’re shining the spotlight on Jaimee Biggins, who is our Managing Editor.

What is your role and what does it involve?

In my role as Managing Editor at UCL Press, I’m responsible for guiding books and journals through production from manuscript to publication.

I coordinate all production activities including briefing suppliers and freelancers, managing schedules and budgets, quality checking content throughout the process and leading author communication.

On a day-to-day level, I’m tracking progress of my titles, monitoring key dates and problem-solving as issues arise. I ensure that UCL Press content is ready for print and online publication.

As well as producing print copies of all our books, we also do epub/Kindle versions and enhanced digital versions of some of our books, so my role is increasingly digitally focused and involves making sure that the final file is ready for all the various outputs.

As an Open Access publisher, we also upload a downloadable PDF of all our books on UCL Discovery and disseminate the PDF to various Open Access platforms – so the process doesn’t just end at final file stage.

How long have you been at UCL and what was your previous role?

I joined UCL Press two years ago. My previous role was Team Leader at Oxford University Press. I supervised a team of production editors working on academic and trade books.

What working achievement or initiative are you most proud of?

In my previous job, I spent five weeks in India as a short-term project manager. I visited several of our core suppliers as we rolled out important production initiatives.

It was great to be on the ground, shadowing my counterparts and learning about workflows at our suppliers. It was also a fantastic experience to be immersed in a different culture too.

Tell us about a project you are working on now which is top of you to-do list?

At the moment, I’m focusing on our autumn books and journals. We have a varied list and I’m busy making sure we achieve our planned publication dates.

What is your favourite album, film and novel?

Album: Madonna: Greatest Hits

Film: It’s a Wonderful Life

Novel: The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields

What is your favourite joke (pre-watershed)?

I’m afraid I’m terrible with jokes!

Who would be your dream dinner guests?

Emily Dickinson

W. B. Yeats

Joan Didion

Sheryl Sandberg

Iris Murdoch

What advice would you give your younger self?

What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?

What would it surprise people to know about you?

I lived in New York for five years.

What is your favourite place?

Galway in the west coast of Ireland – I love the rugged coastline and the wild beauty of the landscape. As well as the stunning scenery, the people are friendly and welcoming and there are plenty of cosy pubs to hide in and escape the rain!

n a semi-regular blog series, we’ll introduce you to the people behind the press.  First up is Alison Major, who is the Marketing and Distribution Manager for UCL Press.

What is your role and what does it involve?

I’m Marketing and Distribution Manager for UCL Press, UCL’s university press. This means that I look after everything that happens after a book or journal has published.

I don’t really have a typical day- I can be meeting authors, negotiating with distributors, knee deep in catalogues/websites/emails, managing our social media presence (see our twitter account @uclpress, Instagram coming soon), talking to socities attending conferences and a whole host of other things.

How long have you been at UCL and what was your previous role?

I’ve been at UCL since July 2015. It’s something of a homecoming, as I studied here as an undergraduate. Previously, I worked for Lippincott Williams and Wilkins (part of Wolters Kluwer) looking after various aspects of their international marketing. My last role there focused on Middle East and global south, and involved a lot of travel to some wonderful countries I might never have visited otherwise, like Oman.

What working achievement or initiative are you most proud of?

I am incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved at UCL Press- it’s been a very fun, exciting journey so far, and we’re extremely proud of the excellent authors that we’ve worked with. In our first year, we have published 12 books than have been downloaded 35,000 times in more than 160 countries worldwide. There are even more exciting titles to come in Autumn!

Tell us about a project you are working on now which is top of you to-do list?

UCL Press’ first birthday. We are extremely proud of what we’ve achieved in the first year, so it’s great to be able to celebrate with those who have played a part in making it the success that it’s become.

What is your favourite album, film and novel?

This is a really, really hard question!

Album: Blue Afternoon by Tim Buckley or Pink Moon by Nick Drake

Film: Probably one of the Dogme films: either Festen (“The Celebration”) or Idioterne (“The Idiots”)

Novel: Master and Margerita by Mikhail Bulgakov every time. It’s just a book that keeps on giving.

What is your favourite joke (pre-watershed)?

I don’t really have a favourite joke that would work well when written, but my three year old niece is obsessed by this one:

What do you call a dinosaur with no eyes?

Doyathinkysaurus!

Who would be your dream dinner guests?

Nelson Mandela, William S. Burroughs, Jón Gnarr, Bill Hicks, Mata Hari, Aung San Suu Kyi, Kathleen Hanna, Pablo Escobar, Mo Mowlam, Dolly Parton, Jeff Buckley, and finally, my Fiance!

What advice would you give your younger self?

The same advice I always give to interns and students: there is no such thing as a stupid question. That, and to always ask yourself “Who died?” when something goes wrong. Inevitably, the answer is no one.

What would it surprise people to know about you?

I have been glacier hiking and didn’t scream once. Or that I can’t drive, and have never even had a single lesson.

What is your favourite place?

Another hard one! It’s so difficult to nail it down. If I really *have* to choose, it’d either be at Roskilde festival, listening to music whilst sharing a few drinks with my very best friends and watching the sun going down…or…on the wonderful island of Lokrum looking out to the Adriatic as the sun goes down, surrounded by peacocks.