Academic Book Week to return to UK

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Academic Book Week – a week-long UK celebration of the diversity, innovation and influence of academic books throughout history, is running for a second time, from 23 to 28 January 2017.

Created by and for those who read, write, create, sell or work with academic books, the Academic Book Week Steering Committee is calling on academics, booksellers, publishers, libraries, institutions and researchers to host events as part of the initiative.

From debates, workshops and seminars to exhibitions, competitions, writing sprints and more, events are open to anyone and everyone, bringing together people from all sides of the debate to celebrate the academic book and consider its future. Academic Book Week 2017 will debate a wide range of topical issues, with possible discussion topics including the phenomenon of the ‘crossover book’; accessibility of academic materials; technological and business model innovation in academic publishing, digital vs. print; the academic book and academic career development; and the Research Excellence Framework.

The flagship event to mark the week, and the first event to be announced, will be the launch of the final report of the Academic Book of The Future project. This two-year project, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council in collaboration with the British Library, looked at how scholarly work in the arts and humanities will be produced, read, and preserved in coming years. The event will be hosted at the British Library on 25 January.

The first ever Academic Book Week took place in November 2015 and saw more than 60 events hosted across the UK and internationally at libraries, bookshops, universities, academic publishers and beyond. Academic Book Week 2017 is being coordinated by: the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers, the Booksellers Association, the British Library, Midas PR, The Publishers Association, Research Libraries UK and University College London.