Katie Campbell is the Marketing and Sales Assistant at Notre Dame Press, specializing in the Press backlist to keep older titles in circulation and conversation. This is their second year in the academic publishing industry and they are thrilled to be working with their colleagues at the Press to bring scholarship to as many readers as possible.
In the middle of August, many Notre Dame Press Staff members traveled to Chicago to meet with staff members of the Seminary Co-op Bookstores. We gathered in a circle of chairs among the quiet bookshelves before the store opened, donuts on the table and paper out to take notes.
We discussed our shared goals, of providing readers with literature and knowledge, of making books widely available, of sustaining ourselves and each other. We talked about how we can best support each other, as businesses in the publishing industry and as people who love books. We took the time to wander the store and browse the selection (and buy a title or three). We planned follow up conversations and changes we would implement.
Conversations like this are at the core of a University Press. We are constantly connecting with our peers and our community to do the best job we can do as a book publisher. We publish approximately 60 peer-reviewed print and digital books each year, read by people around the globe, and our entire team works together to make it happen. We value facts, expertise, and knowledge, and support not only our own titles but our fellow University Presses as we strive to bring that knowledge, that expertise, those facts, to print.
But what do we do at a University Press?
Part of it is mundane. We check email. We update spreadsheets. We sit in meetings and schedule more meetings and reply to emails. But there is so much more than the everyday tasks. They all add up, much like words on pages, to a full and complete organization dedicated to publishing a wide range of academic and general interest books.
We are part of our University, and part of a larger network of University Presses all dedicated to the same goals. The Association of University Presses (AUPresses) has over one hundred and fifty members all across the globe. There is an entire page on the AUP website dedicated to the shared values of University Presses, split into three categories: Society, Scholarship, and the University Community. Each goal listed is one Notre Dame Press works to achieve alongside University Presses from as nearby as Minnesota to as far as Melbourne, Australia.
We publish Nobel prize winners and first-time authors. Our list includes titles about the history of our University, the history of the United States, and histories of countries such as Russia, Venezuela, and Ireland. We have memoirs about those who survived concentration camps, and biographies of civil rights leaders. There are books on new democracies in Latin America and stories of resilience from Palestine. We hold our authors to a high standard and they continue to meet it. We hold ourselves to a high standard, as well, and are always striving to exceed set expectations.
Thinking about that conversation with the Seminary Co-op Bookstores puts things in perspective. So much of our work comes down to that—conversations between passionate people who want to make books, research, knowledge, available to the world. Our mission statement ends with the pertinent phrase “our books and authors are a powerful force for good in the world.” We are proud to be a University Press and will continue to be a force for good in the world with each and every book we publish.