What will the university press of the future look like? This panel, intended for faculty and graduate students in the humanities as well as librarians, will begin by laying out the current status of academic publishing (e.g., impact of the e-book; declining library sales; consequence of the acquisition of presses by conglomerates); it will then turn to discuss prospects for the future (e.g., publishing on digital platforms that enable interactive features; open access). Topics to be addressed include coming changes in the nature of publishing operations, business models, and organizational contexts.
Peter Berkery has been Executive Director of AAUP since early 2013. He was previously Vice President and Publisher for the US Law Division at Oxford University Press. Berkery has a BA in Classical Studies from Boston College, and an MA and a JD from The American University, as well as a Master of Laws in Taxation from George Washington University.
Peter Potter, who was editor-in-chief at Cornell University Press since 2006, became Director of Publishing Strategy for University Libraries at Virginia Tech in January 2016. Before Cornell, he worked at The Pennsylvania State University Press as editor-in-chief and associate director, and held editor and acting director positions at the Wesleyan University Press. Throughout his nearly 30 years in university press publishing, Potter has been a leader in efforts to integrate new technologies into scholarly publishing practices, specifically working to leverage the complementary strengths of a university press and a university library to elevate faculty research, for example by helping to launch the Office of Digital Scholarly Publishing at Penn State--one of the first centers to be jointly sponsored by a university library and a university press. He received his bachelor's degree in history from Virginia Tech and his master's degree in history from the University of Virginia.
