Delivering course readings that explore social identity and lived experience with library-friendly terms

Lived Places Publishing (LPP) was launched in the summer of 2021 with a mission to increase understanding and awareness across human difference. This month, the launch of our first collection of 40 titles represents a major step towards that goal. 

Each LPP book is part of an inter-disciplinary collection, with a wide arry of topic areas such as Disability Studies, Black Studies, Education Studies, Forced Migration Studies, Asian Studies, and Queer and LGBT+ Studies. Each of these collections are led by top academics in their respective fields. The 2023 library collection of 40 ebooks is delivered from our platform with DRM-free perpetual access, whole ebook inter-library loan rights, and with 5% of all sales used to fund author-selected open access publishing.

Lived Places Publishing was founded by longtime publisher and information technology industry entrepreneur David Parker and Dr. Chris McAuley, professor of Black Studies at University of California, Santa Barbara. “As someone who has taught for many years, the sharing of personal stories seems to be the most effective way of sensitizing students to other people’s experiences,” notes Professor McAuley. “When David shared his original vision for Lived Places Publishing with me, I was immediately committed to making bringing this publishing concept to the world.” 

Though they are available to the general public as well, Lived Places Publishing books are intended to be course readings. Each book includes learning objectives, recommended additional readings, and suggested discussion and assignment topics, making them easy to plug into current curricula. Each book dives deeply into the experience of social identity and place or context, and is grounded in the theoretical principles of the academic subject of the collection within which the book resides. Example titles include:

1. Gifting resilience: A pandemic study of Black female resistance by Dr Linda Jean Hall – published Sep 2022
2. Improving the experience of health care for people living with sensory disability by Dr Annmaree Watharow MD, PhD – forthcoming Feb 2023
3. No place for autism? by Jim Hoerricks – forthcoming Feb 2023
4. Displacement, (de)segregation, and dispossession by Dr Rebecca Alexander – forthcoming Apr 2023
5. My precious legacy: Slave culture in the American South by Dr Deirdre Foreman – forthcoming May 2023
6. Growing up undiagnosed: Surviving childhood in New York City as an undiagnosed Autistic by Becca Lory Hector – forthcoming Fall 2023
7. Music and Black community in segregated North Carolina: “It’s all right…” by Dr Gregory Freeland – forthcoming Apr 2023
8. Stories of Black female identity in the making: Queering the love in Blackness by Dr Kadian Pow – forthcoming
9. My name is: Is your name a gift or a burden? by Dr Javeria Shah – forthcoming
10. The cost of safety: Central American young people notions of home by Dr Mirna Carranza – forthcoming
11. Lived experience leadership in trans communities by Dr Jay Stewart – forthcoming
12. A woman incarcerated: The effects on family and society by Marci Marie Simmons – forthcoming

Accessibility, affordability, and wide availability are core propositions guiding the Lived Places Publishing team. With this in mind, delivering a “library-first” collection was of critical importance. With input from a team of librarians and progressive publishers, LPP designed its library offering, which includes: 

• DRM-free access to each title in the collection, with no restriction on pages printed, pages copies, or books downloaded.
• Whole ebook inter-library loan rights, allowing the LPP collection-owning institution to loan each title in the collection to one partner institution while maintaining local campus usage.
• Pricing per title that aims to be the lowest price offered per title anywhere. 

Dominic Broadhurst, Head of Content and Discovery at the University of Salford, notes, “LPP is striving to provide high quality content whilst simultaneously addressing some of the real pain points faced by libraries within the current library e-book environment.” Dominic also serves on LPP’s librarian board of advisors.

To introduce Lived Places Publishing and our 2023 library collection of 40 titles to the university library world, we are offering unrestricted open-ended trials. We understand that interrupting faculty or student access to content during the semester can create havoc. Therefore, we understand the need to let our early trialing libraries define the length of the trial. To begin a trial or to learn more about the Lived Places Publishing 2023 Library Collection of 40 titles, please visit: https://livedplacespublishing.com/librarians

Download Complete 2023 Title List (.xls)

About Lived Places Publishing

Lived Places Publishing, LLC is a privately-owned publisher based in New York. Our aim is to deliver a wider, more diverse range of voices to college classrooms in easy-to-consume, curriculum-ready course readings.

For queries or comment, please contact David Parker, Founder & Publisher: david@livedplacespublishing.com