California: “The L.A. Public Library is Getting Into Book Publishing. Why It Makes Total Sense”

From the Los Angeles Times:

Every day seemed to bring the announcement of a newspaper being bought out, a media company laying off journalists, an independent press shutting down. When Paddy Calistro and Scott McAuley, the co-founders of Angel City Press, announced they were retiring from the publishing house they’d run for more than 30 years, it sounded like just another sad story in 2023.

But the L.A. institution had a surprising plan. In an unprecedented turn of events, the publisher dedicated to celebrating L.A.’s rich cultural history has been acquired by the Los Angeles Public Library.

On Dec. 16, the LAPL, the fifth-largest public library system in the U.S., announced the acquisition of the press from a donation by Calistro and McAuley. The outfit will now be called Angel City Press at the Los Angeles Public Library.

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The LAPL won’t be the first library system with its own press. The Library of Congress Publishing Office puts out titles through its Library of Congress Books program. In 2016, the New York Public Library launched its own imprint that publishes five books a year, celebrating all that libraries do for New Yorkers.

There are broader links between libraries and publishers: The Assn. of Research Libraries works closely with the Assn. of University Presses to share information and opportunities. But the LAPL’s acquisition speaks to its unique relationship with Angel City Press.

Read the Complete Article (about 1250 words)

Ed. Note: If interested in the topic of “library as publisher” make sure to take a look at the work of the Library Publishing Coalition (LPC) and its more than 80 members.

Filed under: Companies (Publishers/Vendors), Libraries, News, Public Libraries, Publishing