ABOUT THIS BOOK

In 1980, Katina Strauch started the Charleston Conference: Issues in Book and Serial Acquisition to bring together librarians, publishers, and vendors to discuss issues shared by the three groups. The meeting has continued annually and boasts over 3,000 attendees in person and virtually. This memoir is Katina’s diary and story of the Charleston Conference and its development concurrently with her career as a professional librarian. Over the last 45 years, there have been massive changes in scholarly communication, changes that Katina has been at the heart of. Where and what will the library and publishing professions develop next? The sky’s the limit to reimagining! Let’s go.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Katina Strauch began life as a librarian in the mid-1970s. In 1980, she started the Charleston Conference: Issues in Book and Serial Acquisition to bring together librarians, publishers, and vendors to discuss issues shared by the three groups. The meeting has continued annually and boasts over 3,000 attendees in person and virtual, as well as an online counterpart several times a year, Charleston in between. In 1998, Katina partnered with Italian booksellers Casalini Libri to begin the Casalini Fiesole Retreats. These take place every year in different countries around the world. Katina has continued as a professional librarian and has won many awards. She has published numerous books and articles on collection development and acquisitions. She has served on the National Museum and Library Services Board and the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Information Board of Visitors. Katina retired as a librarian in 2016. She sold the Charleston Conference and its associated Against the Grain publications imprint to the non-profit publisher Annual Reviews in 2023.

REVIEWS

“Scholarly communication is the backbone of human progress. Thanks to Katina’s foresight, passion and dedication, the Charleston Conference has become an influential platform for building bridges between contributors, including academic librarians, scholars, and publishers. As knowledge expands at unprecedented rates with technological and scientific advancement, Charleston and Katina’s legacy will continue to play a critical role in propelling scholarly communication forward through collaboration, integrity, and innovation.” Kumsal Bayazit, CEO, Elsevier
— -

Charleston is unique in that librarians, publishers, and vendors all come together in the spirit of collaboration to solve problems and advance scholarly communication. As it has grown in size from a few hundred to thousands of attendees, Katina and the Charleston team have made sure to preserve the elements that make it special. Above all, the care that is put into the selection of sessions, the centerpiece of the conference, has distinguished the Charleston Conference experience.— Annie Callanan, CEO, EBSCO Information Services

Scholarly communication is the backbone of human progress. Thanks to Katina’s foresight, passion and dedication, the Charleston Conference has become an influential platform for building bridges between contributors, including academic librarians, scholars, and publishers. As knowledge expands at unprecedented rates with technological and scientific advancement, Charleston and Katina’s legacy will continue to play a critical role in propelling scholarly communication forward through collaboration, integrity, and innovation.

— Kumsal Bayazit, CEO, Elsevier

For me, the Charleston Conference is unique, and that is thanks to the vision and leadership delivered by Katrina Strauch. Katina saw the need for a place for those involved in and passionate about scholarly communication, to meet, share ideas and yes even disagree, but to do so in style and good spirit. Each year, Charleston does this energetically, bringing together publishers, librarians and vendors for honest and inspiring conversation. The fact that for many, me included, a November trip to Charleston is a fixed entry in our diaries, is testament to the longevity of Katina’s vision and the success of the conference she created.

— Frank Vrancken Peeters, Chief Executive, Springer Nature

Like an alchemist, Katina has assembled a crack team to make the Charleston Library Conference a must-attend event for the library and publishing community. Katina is like Charleston, a city of Creole cultures, traditions, and innovations, where all her friends and admirers gather each year. I hope Katina will continue to make history for many years to come.

— Gaelle Bequet, Director, ISSN International Centre

Acquisitions and collection development are learned on the job and not in library school. The Charleston conference is an excellent learning opportunity for librarians. Most of all it a growth opportunity for librarians in the field to network and share ideas.— Glenda M. Alvin, Dean of Libraries and Media Centers, Tennessee State University

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

Preface

Part 1: 1973–1990: Old Problems, New Solutions

Chapter 1: First Steps

Chapter 2: The First Charleston Conference (1980)

Chapter 3: The Charleston Conference in Its Early Years

Chapter 4: Growing the Conference (1983– 1989)

Chapter 5: The Library World in the 1970s and 1980s

Part 2: 1989–2005: The Middle

Chapter 6: Technology Takes Charge

Part 3: 2006–2023: What’s Past is Prologue

Chapter 7: The Formative Years

Chapter 8: More Opportunities

Chapter 9: Scholarly Publishing Industry Developments, by Darrell W. Gunter

Part 4: 2024 and Beyond (The Importance of Being Earnest)

Chapter 10: The Big Picture

Part 5: Profiles

Notes

Index