Who doesn’t love a good ice cream social? Greg Eow, President of the Center for Research Libraries, believes that partnerships between university presses and libraries are key to developing sustainable knowledge dissemination practices. During his time at MIT Libraries, he would invite members of the Press to their annual ice cream social—any opportunity to mingle between groups was essential.

Emily Farrell, Library Partnerships and Sales Lead at the MIT Press, agrees, noting that university press and library staff are often more alike than they realize. “There’s an incredible number of very idealistic, nerdy, bookish folks that … love what they do, and they do it because the mission really matters, and I think that that personal resonance and connection, it shouldn’t be undervalued in terms of what it can produce.”

In this third episode, Emily and Greg chat about the potential new relationships between presses and libraries can create. Emily also breaks down the adaptability of MIT’s Direct to Open model for other presses, and key performance indicators of its success, like increased author buy-in. Greg explains the valuable role consortia can play in highlighting innovative projects like Direct to Open for libraries to keep on their radar.