February 4, 2013

For New Ideas in Scholarly Publishing, Look to the Library

Hot Off the (Library) Press 1

M. Scott Brauer for The Chronicle

Bryn Geffert is librarian of Amherst College, where the libraries are starting an academic press. Open access, he says, is a "fundamental value to the press."

By Jennifer Howard

Can a small college library fix what's wrong with scholarly publishing? Bryn Geffert, librarian of Amherst College, wants to find out.

Mr. Geffert is starting a new publishing operation overseen by the library and committed to open access, called the Amherst College Press. It will produce a handful of edited, peer-reviewed, digital-first books on "a very small number of subjects," the librarian says. "We want to do a few things well,