It is my pleasure to share with you this fourteenth annual report as executive director of the Association of University Presses (AUPresses), covering the fiscal year from April 1 2025 through March 31 2026. While over the past now two years, the norms of civil society continue to be tested here in the US, we do see glimmers of hope in many communities. And so, the perilous moment notwithstanding, efforts to defend the Association’s Core Values continue; highlights of those efforts in FY26 appear later in this report.
I’ll start my review by the numbers: I’m pleased to report that the AUPresses community grew again in FY26: as of this writing we’ve added six new presses to our membership, and welcomed returning members Qatar University Press and Dumbarton Oaks, bringing the total membership count to 169—another record. Moreover, an additional application is currently under review. As I’ve noted in several recent annual reports, interest in joining the AUPresses community is expanding globally, reflecting the increasingly global nature of scholarly communications; you’ll see evidence of this here and elsewhere in this report.
Through the volunteer labor of 180 committee members, supported by an exceptional Central Office staff, the Association works to implement the strategic direction set by the Board of Directors. We are two-thirds of the way through the three-year refresh of our Strategic Plan, showing strong progress on a majority of the plan’s Tactics.
Speaking of the Central Office, I’ll take a moment here to share as always my tremendous admiration and respect for my staff colleagues—individually and collectively. I have never been part of a more consistently talented, collegial, and conscientious team, and it is a joy to work alongside Dylan, McKenzi, Kate, Annette, Alexis, Brenna, and Kim.
Turning to the Association’s finances, while our overall financial position remains strong we did end the fiscal year with an operating deficit substantially larger than planned – ($290,050.14) actual vs ($168,164.85) budget. There are a number of factors contributing to this result: larger than expected net losses for both the Business Operations Meeting and the Press Directors Summit, unanticipated legal expenses associated with the Anthopic AI class action settlement, rising travel costs, and an extra in-person board meeting—it’s important to reiterate our overall financial health: our Balance Sheet is pristine, and our reserves exceed $2m—the latter notwithstanding a board-approved withdrawal to fund infrastructure investments relating to our membership database and directory. As always, I would direct you to the Operating Statement and Balance Sheet for complete details of our financial performance.
Over the past year I have represented AUPresses at meetings of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), the Society for Scholarly Publishers (SSP), the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP), UKSG, the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI), the Book Industry Study Group (BISG), the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) (including its Journals Symposium), the Charleston Conference, Charleston Asia, the National Museum Publishers Conference, the London and Frankfurt Book Fairs, and the Research to Reader Conference. I participate in BISG’s Association Advisory Council and serve on the Steering Group of the Coalition for Diversity and Inclusion in Scholarly Communications (C4DISC) and the Participating Organization Advisory Council for Knowledge Commons (KC). This past January saw my tenth year of service as a judge for the Association of American Publishers’ PROSE Awards. At this year’s University Press Redux conference I had the opportunity to join Dennis Lloyd (Wisconsin) and Stephanie Williams (Wayne State) in a plenary discussion on Publishing in Perilous Times. I also participated in a panel on defending trust in research at the 2025 STM Conference in Frankfurt. I serve on the Board of Directors of the National Humanities Alliance and the Seminary Co-op Bookstores; this month I was appointed Chair of the latter. You’ll find details of other service to partners in the larger publishing and scholarly communities in the Peer Organizations and Global Community sections of this report.
It’s always a challenge to know which of the Association’s myriad activities merit attention in this report. Since most of them are described elsewhere, I’ll highlight here a few personal favorites.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) of course dominated the agenda as FY26 saw us building on the work begun in prior years. President Dennis Lloyd (Wisconsin) established the Generative AI Task Force to understand and prioritize the community’s needs and capabilities; you can read more about the group, ably chaired by Barbara Kline Pope (Johns Hopkins) elsewhere in this report. The 2025 Press Directors Summit included a workshop intended to help participants engage with the CNI-ARL AI Scenarios. We devoted significant resources to ensuring members were fully informed about the Anthropic AI class action settlement, and we continue to monitor AI-related litigation to help member presses protect both their interests and those of their authors. Finally, we also continue to monitor AI-related regulatory and policy developments in bellwether geographies globally.
Early in 2025, an unlikely alliance of five organizations—ARL, ACRL, STM, SSP, and AUPresses—came together to explore a shared concern over the growing lack of trust in research and expertise, a global trend exacerbated by the numerous coordinated actions occurring across the US Federal government. Through a series of conversations and meetings, we found common ground and common cause; governance documents were iterated, and support is being built. We’re still very much a work in progress as you read this, but the collaboration with peers from across the scholarly communications ecosystem has been enlightening and enriching.
The Association’s global presence continues to grow in exciting and rewarding ways. During FY26 we welcomed new members from Hong Kong, Nigeria, Sharjah, and Taiwan, with applications pending from several other geographies. As I write, we are working with our colleagues in Frankfurt and around the globe to ensure a successful international convening of university presses occurs at the 2026 Messe. Our efforts to nurture regional collaborations are beginning to yield concrete results with the emergence of nascent networks in Southern Africa and ASEAN. Our goal in these efforts is to offer resource and support in whatever ways possible—the agenda, program, and progress all are determined at the grassroots. Finally, our annual traveling Book, Jacket, and Journal Show added a Hong Kong stop to its tour in spring 2026!
I mentioned earlier our continued progress executing on the tactics in our Strategic Plan; herewith, a few highlights of accomplishments during FY26:
- Soft launch of the Trusted Knowledge Alliance
- Convening of university press communities from Southern Africa and ASEAN in Bangkok, in advance of Charleston Asia
- Further expansion of our Collective Stand Program to include the American Booksellers Association Winter Institute and Charleston Asia
- Successful virtual annual meeting, with registration continuing to hover around 1,000
- The 60th anniversary of our always-inspiring Book, Jacket, and Journal Show
- Establishment of a Task Force to review the Association’s dues structure; report due in June
- Second Press Directors Summit in October
- Recognizing the visionary leadership of founding Director of the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Office of Digital Humanities, Brett Bobley, with our Stand UP Award
- Investment in member database infrastructure, leading to imminent launch of a new directory!
And of course, as I noted at the outset, we continue to act without hesitation in our community’s interests when our Core Values are threatened.
As veteran readers of this report will recall, it is my practice to conclude each year with a reminder that the Central Office stands ready to support any member facing institutional adversity. This advice seems especially essential in the current environment—we’ve lost presses affiliated with departments or agencies of the US government, and backward-thinking university administrators, claiming financial pressure, targeted two of our members for closure. I hope all of you continue to keep this crucial member benefit top of mind should you find your press facing institutional or governmental scrutiny.
All best,
Peter Berkery
Executive Director, AUPresses
