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WLU Press to integrate with university’s library

Brian Hendersen

Brian Henderson

Wilfrid Laurier University Press will be exploring new funding models and partnerships now that it is has lost its operating grant, to be phased out over the next three years. Effective immediately, WLU Press will enter into an integrated administrative structure with the university’s library, as per a proposal approved by the university last week.

WLU Press director Brian Henderson will now report to WLU librarian Gohar Ashoughian, and the press will serve as part of a library cultural and learning commons.

The initiative echoes similar arrangements at the University of Alberta, MIT, Stanford University, and elsewhere.

Ashoughian, Henderson, and WLU Library associate vice-president of research Donna Kotsopoulos hope that as a result of this merger, the press will be sustainable without university subsidy.

Henderson says in a press release:

Partnering with the library will enhance our mutual abilities to pursue new models of scholarly communication, engage with the challenges of the digital information environment, and support the research enterprise through the publication process. We will continue to publish books in our areas of strength, tightly focusing our list to most effectively engage with both the scholarly community and the marketplace, while actively pursuing innovative approaches to publishing and new partnerships.