James Engelhardt, the Acquisitions Editor at the University of Illinois Press who will be presenting the “Your Book and the University Press Ecosystem” workshop for future authors and publishers Thursday.

Engelhardt will explain how the University Press functions and provide information on how to find the right publisher, how to deal with editors, submitting proposals and more. 

The Library System’s Scholarly Commons, which connects students and employees at the University to academic experts and scholarly materials, is sponsoring the event.

According to Engelhardt, there is a lot of pressure put onto scholars to publish, especially at a Research I institution like the University.

“We have 101 years of publishing history, so we’ve got history behind us, and we have a great deal of expertise,” Engelhardt said. “One of the things that young scholars, scholars at the beginning of their career, hear a lot about is publishing, needing to publish, but they don’t necessarily know how a publishing house works or even how to think about the world of academic publishing writ large.”

However, Engelhardt said this workshop will help to bridge that gap and give more information and context to young scholars.

“This is an opportunity for people in that position to get a better lay of the land, if you will, and find a way forward for themselves and their project,” Engelhardt said. We’ve got roughly 40 people working at different parts of the publishing world, so we can take that and help scholars that have come to finish their Ph.D. or master’s programs and share that expertise that we have with them.”

However, Emilie Staubs, Office Manager for the Scholarly Commons, said graduate and Ph.D. students aren’t the only ones who can take advantage of the workshop and other resources the Scholarly Commons has to offer.

“We have an undergraduate research librarian, and we work with undergraduates to publish their work in Ideals, our institutional repository,” Staubs said. “It keeps their academic work accessible online, and it’s also searchable, and that’s a good way to showcase your research.”

The workshop will take place on Thursday from 1-2 p.m. in the Main Library. 

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