WEBSITE AND COMMONS
The Association’s website at www.aupresses.org is our entirely public-facing site, showcasing our members and the value and values of university presses. Highlights of the site include our mission statement translated into more than 30 languages, the widely valued Permissions FAQs and other open tools, a growing “Resources” index to help users locate both open and member-restricted materials, and our highly trafficked Jobs List.
Member resources, including the ability to post job listings, are accessible via sites within the UP Commons space—allowing members to maintain a single log-in identity for AUPresses community collaborations, members-only resources, and restricted benefits, as well as across their professional identity in any disciplinary space within the Humanities Commons network. A new members-resource site was launched this past year to host the new demographics toolkit from the Equity, Justice, Inclusion, and Belonging Committee, the Diversity & Inclusion Baseline Survey for Publishing Partners.
The site hosting feature of UP Commons allows the Association to support free-standing public sites there, as well. These include the committee-designed homes for the Book, Jacket, and Journal Show and the Ask UP author education resource. The online edition of Best Practices for Peer Review Handbook and our Annual Report are also supported on the UP Commons platform.
AUPRESSES BULLETIN
A monthly newsletter providing updates on Association programs, activities, and news from the membership, along with a slate of recommended reads from industry publications, the bulletin is distributed via email to subscribed staff at member presses.
MEMBERSHIP DIRECTORY
Work continued over the past year to strengthen the back-end infrastructure that supports directory functions, member communications, and data collection, including updating recent publication numbers from member presses. As a reminder, the decision was taken in 2022 to suspend the publication of the Association’s annual print Directory. The data and technology infrastructure on which the legacy directory was produced requires an innovative overhaul to ensure that a future version of the directory serves the needs of our members and community partners going forward.
THE DIGITAL DIGEST
The Association’s blog Digital Digest serves as a channel for perspectives from around our community. Posts from the past year include professional development reports from seven 2023 Week-in-Residence and Directors Residency participants, an interview with Erich van Rijn (California) on the impact and rewards of AUPresses committee service, published during National Volunteer Week 2024, and the unabridged version of an opinion piece on open monographs, written by President-elect Anthony Cond (Liverpool) and President Jane Bunker (Cornell), that appeared in Times Higher Ed.