The Pittsburgh Novel: An Interactive Bibliography Three Years in the Making

The Penn State University Libraries Open Publishing program publishes scholarly annotated bibliographies in partnership with units/departments within Penn State and individuals, centers, and societies across Pennsylvania. This case study will discuss the workflow we followed to publish the extensive The Pittsburgh Novel: Western Pennsylvania in Fiction and Drama, 1792-2022 bibliography edited by Jake and Peter Oresick. It will include how this publication came to our library publishing program after initially being considered by the Penn State University Press, through to its launch more than three years later and the reception of the publication by the greater Pittsburgh community. We will discuss the software used to publish this dynamic, searchable, annotated bibliography of titles and showcase the variety of search features available: genre, keywords, a nested list of geographical data, and an interactive map. We will also detail the challenges faced during the publication process, such as inconsistent data and new data added over time, ensuring the website had the appropriate features needed, the technical challenge we worked through with our libraries’ IT department, and implementing an interactive map for the first time in our publishing program. All these challenges provided learning opportunities to improve upon in future bibliography publications.