News From Lever Press
Spring 2021
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Chair's Update
Lever has always been a small press with a big vision: nearly fifty small liberal arts college libraries collaboratively established a born digital, academic press through a unique partnership with Michigan Publishing and Amherst College Press. As we enter our second phase, a more diverse group of libraries are stepping forward to endorse Lever’s contributions to scholarly publishing and open access by becoming supporting institutions. I am very pleased to welcome among those new members the libraries at Iowa State, UCLA, the University of Vermont, Central Washington University, the University of Idaho, the University of Richmond, and the University of San Francisco. Additional new institutions are moving toward membership and will be posted on the Lever Press site as they make their commitments.
Many people think of the Lever Press as a liberal arts press. This isn’t surprising as the press was established by a coalition of liberal arts colleges and seeks to produce works aligned with the liberal arts ethos. However, small colleges do not hold a monopoly on the liberal arts and Lever’s mission resonates with a broad range of institutional types. Lever’s editorial program provides a fuller articulation of how our liberal arts ethos guides our search for transformative scholarship that
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Emerges from creative dialogue within and between traditional fields of inquiry, with an emphasis on disciplinary innovation and transformation;
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Engages with issues of social and civic importance; and
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Transcends divisions between research and teaching by drawing from new models of collaborative inquiry addressing a broad audience.
Deeply rooted in the liberal arts tradition, this editorial vision builds from an inclusive, interdisciplinary, and forward-looking approach that complements the missions of a very broad range of academic libraries. Lever’s founding members were also driven by audacious goals: to establish a press that is uncompromising in setting the highest standards for peer review and editorial work, never charges any fees to either readers or authors, selects scholarship of merit regardless of commercial viability, provides a publishing platform that supports multi-modal scholarship, and makes all of its output openly accessible to the world. Those goals continue to define Lever Press and I am incredibly pleased that libraries of all types are joining Lever and advancing its vision and mission.
Regards,
Mark Christel
Chair, the Oversight Committee of the Lever Press
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This February we were delighted to have Richard Benson, Associate Professor of Education from Spelman College, join our Editorial Board. Dr. Benson’s research interests combine a wealth of experiences and scholarship in critical pedagogy, history of American and African-American education, hip-hop history and youth popular culture, critical race theory and education, history of social movements, and school-community relationships.
A new translation of Sophokles’ Women of Trachis by Vassar authors Rachel Kitzinger and Eamon Grennan is now live on Fulcrum and available for print purchase. The Fulcrum version of the volume includes a voice recording of the translation by Vassar students.
We look forward to our two forthcoming titles this spring and summer: Academic Pipeline Programs: Diversifying Pathways from the Bachelor's to the Professoriate, by Curtis D. Byrd and Rihana S. Mason, in May 2021 and Culture & Content in French: Frameworks for Innovative Curricula, edited by Kathryne Adair Corbin (Haverford) and Aurélie Chevant-Aksoy, in June 2021.
Beth Bouloukos, April 2021
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We held three informational webinars in March and early April to introduce potential new members to Lever Press. The webinars covered our editorial program, our relationship with Michigan Publishing and our contribution to the development of Fulcrum, as well as information about our global impact. The webinars are available online, as are the slides.
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Our campaign to increase the number of colleges and universities that support Lever is in full swing. As of this writing, we have commitments from 44 schools, totalling an annual commitment of over $300,000. We hope to reach our goal of getting $500,000 in annual commitments by the end of May. If you are interested in helping with outreach, please contact a member of the Oversight Committee.
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From the Blogosphere and Twitterverse |
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Over the last few weeks, our activity on social media has focused on the “Top Ten Reasons” to support Lever Press:
- Quality, reach, and innovation
- Alignment with mission and ethos of liberal arts institutions
- Adherence to highest level peer-review practices
- Metrics, tracking, and discoverability built into publishing platform
- Research openly available to all, contributing to the democratization of scholarship
- Platinum OA ensures authors equitable access to publication venue regardless of ability to pay publication fees
- Opportunities to transcend disciplinary boundaries and create new models of scholarship
- Publications that blend research with teaching and learning resources
- Lever’s fully open access model means works are freely available online immediately upon publication
- Rich media digital books published on sustainable and durable digital platform, simultaneously available in print
Want to help us promote Lever and advocate for an equitable scholarly publishing ecosystem? Subscribe to our various social media channels and share our content with friends and colleagues. In addition to promotional materials like the list above, you will find great content on our YouTube channel about why libraries support Lever and fascinating Book Talks from Lever authors.
And don't forget to ask colleagues to subscribe to this newsletter to receive notifications of new publications and other Lever news.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LeverPress
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVTm_A48GioWJBZ62o7HLtA
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Lever_Press/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lever_press/
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The end of FY20 finds us in a strong financial position. Not only were we able to produce a record number of titles this past year, our fiscal stewardship will allow us to extend Phase 1 of Lever Press for an entire year at no additional cost to our members. Invoices for Phase 2 pledges will begin appearing in September 2021.
We began FY20 with a carry-forward of $541,330.92 and realized an additional $274,000 in member dues payments. No gifts or other income was received. Non-payment by two members resulted in a $10,000 loss.
Expenses for the year included $7,700 for acquisitions, $33,338 for book production, and $166,625 in overhead, primarily salaries. While we were able to maintain a rigorous production schedule, COVID-19 resulted in significant savings from unspent personnel costs, travel, and conference fees. Total expenses, including those associated with the sale or donation of print copies, were $209,291. The carry-forward for FY21 was $604,039.
Please contact Dalia Corkrum (corkrum@whitman.edu), Lever Press Treasurer, if you have any questions or wish to see more detailed financial information.
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