This report offers a framework for how libraries can begin to embrace their role in the maturing space of digital humanities publishing, particularly as they seek to support what we call “expansive digital publishing” — challenging digital publications that can span disciplinary and institutional boundaries; use many different technologies; have multiple scholarly outputs; grow over time; operate over the long-term or are multi-phase; aim to engage with multiple audiences; and, in general, use digital tools and methods to explore or enable scholarship that would be more difficult to achieve through traditional publishing.

This project grew out of an effort to support a series of “expansive” publications at Duke University Libraries. With support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, we invited a wide range of stakeholders in digital scholarly publishing to workshop these ideas and help us articulate many of the issues outlined in this report. Our exploration included how libraries can work with a network of presses, humanities institutes, and foundations to support expansive digital publishing from start to finish, including how to address planning; resource allocation; discovery; evaluation; and preservation and sustainability.

Our focus is on key issues as well as practices that have worked in other contexts, and we use those to suggest what library and external support might look like. We invite you, our readers and collaborators, to comment on the report, offer us feedback, point us to further sources, and ask new questions for investigation. The report authors are David Hansen, Liz Milewicz, Paolo Mangiafico, Will Shaw, Mattia Begali, and Veronica McGurrin.