Research libraries as digital publishers: The foreign experience

Abstract

The author discusses the current experience of building the service of digital science publishing obtained by the libraries in the Western countries. She emphasizes that this process is incorporated into further informatization of libraries and their increasing role in managing science data. The digital publications integrate a number of interrelated programs comprising the whole cycle of scientific data management accomplished within the wider context of innovations. Digital publishing is a new type of library activities; it requires integrating competences of modern librarians (i.e. content selection, data supervising, metadata management, building digital collections, their preservation and archiving) and publishers (monitoring new trends in science and technology, selecting materials for publication, abstracting, scientific editing, developing marketing strategies).For the first time in the domestic library studies, the dynamics of this service in foreign countries is examined based on Library Publishing Directory for 2013– 2018. The author compares digital publishing services in four university libraries in different world regions and offers the findings of preliminary analysis of online publication services in foreign research libraries.