Informing library-based digital publishing: Selected findings from a survey of scholars' needs in a contemporary publishing environment

Library-based publishing initiatives are on the rise in a rapidly diversifying scholarly publishing ecosystem. This article presents selected results from a US-based survey on the needs of humanities scholars in a contemporary publishing environment, emphasizing survey responses that shed light on key aspects of access for scholars seeking to publish: access to support services, access to content, and access to audience. Survey responses suggest a profile of the authors for whom libraries are poised to offer attractive publishing solutions: (1) those whose scholarship is not sufficiently represented in the print medium and (2) those who place a high value on the technological affordances provided by open-access digital scholarship to reach their intended audiences. Compared to other publishing models, situating support for scholarly communication in the research library creates opportunities for addressing challenges related to access and sustainability in the digital scholarly publishing.