About SPO » FAQ
- What is SPO?
- The Scholarly Publishing Office is a publishing initiative based in the University of Michigan University Library. We are primarily an electronic publisher, but we also use print as a distribution method. You can read all about what we do here.
- What is SPO's primary mission?
- Providing sustainable publishing services.
- Supporting local control of scholarship.
- Fostering a viable and equitable economic model for scholarly communication.
- Is SPO affiliated with any of the University's academic departments?
- We have worked with faculty from a range of departments on campus but have no departmental affiliation.
- Is SPO affiliated with the University of Michigan's School of Information?
- We have no formal affiliation with the UM School of Information, though we work with them on select projects and consult with its faculty on occasion. Most of our interns are students at the School of Information.
- Is SPO affiliated with the Google digitization project?
- Not directly. You can read more about the MBooks project here.
- Who are some of SPO's publishing partners?
- American Council of Learned Societies. Law Library Microform Consortium. Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition. University of Michigan Press. Faculty, academic departments, and library units at the University of Michigan.
- What are some of SPO's publications?
- SPO is a publisher of scholarly resources. What does this mean in practice? Journals of philosophy, women's studies, social work, and more. Online books. Print on demand books. Exhibits from the Special Collections Library. A collaboratively translated French encyclopedia. Scholary databases and bibliographies. More information is available on our Publications page.
- Are all SPO publications available to the public?
- Most of our publications are open access, available freely to the public. Some are available by subscription only. You can view the entire list here.
- How does SPO decide what to publish? Who decides what books and journals SPO will work with?
- We choose our projects and publishing partners based on a variety of criteria, including institutional affiliation, the importance of a projects to its disciplines, the projects match with our mission and methods, and the opportunities a project creates for us to build our expertise and infrastructure.
- Who pays for SPO? Where does the money come from?
- SPO is funded through a budget commitment by the University Library. This base budget is supplemented through a variety of revenue-generating activities.
- What is the process for ordering a book from one of SPO's collections?
- Information on how to order books from our reprints series can be found here.
- Does SPO manage the electronic subscriptions to the journals it publishes?
- If a journal is subscription-based, currently it is up to the content provider to maintain subscriptions. We offer access controls, but not subscription management. If you are interested in working with us and need subscription management, don't hesitate to talk with us. We may be able to help.
- Does SPO hire student interns? Must they be graduate students in information/library science?
- Yes, SPO hires interns frequently. In the past, we have worked with graduate students from Michigan's School of Information and from its Department of English, but we are open to working with anyone who is detail-oriented and interested in furthering the cause of scholarly communication. A sample typical job description for a student intern may be downloaded here.
- Are all the people at SPO librarians?
- Many of us are librarians, but not all. You can read all about us here. Full time jobs will be posted on the library's Human Resources page.
- Is SPO looking for new publishing partners?
- We are always interested in working with partners who share our goal of more effective scholarly communication. Please send us an e-mail at lib.spo@umich.edu.
