We’re thrilled to introduce SPLAB—our new initiative at SDSU Press, the SDSU Press Library Advisory Board. It’s not just an acronym; it’s a space of experiment and exchange.

As an experimental, not-for-profit university press with roots stretching back to 1959, SDSU Press is dedicated to publishing boundary-pushing, interdisciplinary, and genre-defying works in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. We thrive on risk. But even rebels need librarians.

Libraries have always been crucial allies in our mission—champions of access, preservation, and discovery. SPLAB is our effort to formalize that bond: to open up a feedback loop with the librarians who make our books findable, usable, and meaningful in the stacks, databases, and learning commons of the world.

Just as our publications routinely cross borders—linguistic, cultural, disciplinary—so too does our commitment to global engagement. SDSU Press values transnational collaboration not just as an ideal, but as a core practice. We believe that voices from Latin America, the Pacific Rim, and across the Global South deserve presence and power in scholarly discourse, and we welcome library professionals worldwide to join SPLAB in imagining more inclusive and dynamic networks of knowledge.

SPLAB is a sounding board, an idea lab, and a community of collaborators. Together with librarians from diverse institutions, we’ll explore how best to ensure our titles are accessible, discoverable, and relevant—today and into the uncertain future of scholarly publishing.

Board members will work in tandem with SDSU Press editorial staff and the wider SDSU academic community to shape the next chapters in our press’s history—and perhaps help write the future of academic publishing itself.

Founding SDSU Press Library Advisory Board Members

Pamela Jackson, SDSU Library