Visit the Lever Press Website!

For the latest news on the Lever Press, visit our new website at http://leverpress.org .

Lever Initiative Presents to the Annapolis Group

Amherst College librarian Bryn Geffert has posted a video of his June 16, 2015 presentation to the Annapolis Group which frames the work of the Lever Initiative within broader challenges and opportunities in the fast-moving world of academic publishing.

Update: June 2015

We are making considerable progress in our plans for the Lever Press. We have formed a partnership with Amherst College Press and Michigan Publishing. The Oberlin Group Task Force on Scholarly Publishing is working with these two organizations to craft a proposal that we will be sharing this summer. The proposal will include: editorial plan:…

Phase 2 Commences

Following the production of the report at the end of Phase One, The Oberlin Group reviewed the options presented to help achieve the vision of the project: a) To accelerate Open Access publishing in the liberal arts and re-imagine the monograph format; b) To make innovative use of new technologies throughout the publishing process. It…

Lever Initiative Phase One Report Published

The Lever Initiative has today published the results of phase one of its project to investigate the feasibility of launching a new Open Access (OA) publishing venture for the liberal arts. The report summarizes a number of research projects which have explored the overall landscape for OA monograph publishing and attitudes of the library and…

Survey results show support for launch of an innovative new Press

Towards the end of 2013, the Lever Initiative distributed an online survey to faculty members of Oberlin Group institutions asking for their views on monograph publishing. Over 600 responses were received, and highlight findings include: 34% of faculty say it takes 13 months or longer to get a book published 70% of faculty are interested…

Help us understand faculty needs

We are currently conducting an online survey to help us understand faculty attitudes towards book publishing, and assess interest in new, more open forms of publishing that might better support scholarship. We’d appreciate your help in circulating the survey link to faculty within your institution to help us gather insights on current levels of satisfaction…

OA Books Landscape Review

A key part of our project has been to undertake a review of the current open access book publishing landscape. Attached is a summary of the key initiatives we’ve been able to find, but if you know of any others we’d be delighted to hear about them. OA Monograph report_Dec13_v1

The Lever Initiative Task Force Meets at Rollins College

On the 24th October the Lever Initiative Task Force convened at the Library at Rollins College to discuss challenges and opportunities relating to OA monograph publishing. Here we all are, hard at work!

Summary from Virtual Workshops

Thanks to all members of The Oberlin Group who participated in our virtual workshops. During 6 one-hour sessions we gathered the views of over 50 Library Directors relating to the challenges and opportunities for improving book publishing in the liberal arts. A summary of highlights from these discussions can be found here: Lever Initiative Virtual…

Welcome to the Lever Initiative from the Oberlin Group of Libraries

We’re delighted to launch the Lever Initiative blog, through which we’ll keep you updated of our progress during the research phase of this exciting project. You can find out more about the Lever Initiative in the ‘About’ section of this site. Please keep visiting our blog, as we’ll be providing regular updates and posting early…