November 19, 2025
Metadata in Partnership: MUP and the University Library Working Together will explore the successful collaboration between the University of Manchester Library and Manchester University Press to produce, enhance, and disseminate high-quality book metadata. In this session, Emma Booth, Metadata Manager for Content Management, and Beth Price, E-Resources Metadata Specialist at the University of Manchester Library, join Jen Mellor, Head of Operations, Kate Horton, Institutional Sales Manager, and Jessica Thompson, Senior Digital Sales and Marketing Coordinator at Manchester University Press, to discuss how this ongoing partnership has strengthened metadata quality and discoverability across the Press’s digital collections.
Together, they will share insights into the workflows, expertise, and collaborative practices that underpin this cross-departmental partnership – demonstrating how close cooperation between them can enhance visibility, usage, and access to scholarly content. The session will also highlight the importance of human-led metadata creation and curation by cataloguing experts at a time where automation and AI generated metadata is soaring, and why accuracy, authority, and subject expertise remain essential to both libraries and publishers in advancing research dissemination.
Our Speakers:
Emma Booth, Metadata Manager for Content Management at the University of Manchester Library
Emma is the Metadata Manager for Content Management at the University of Manchester Library. She leads a team of metadata and cataloguing specialists who work to ensure that the provision of quality standardised metadata is an intrinsic part of library content acquisitions and collection development processes. Emma is responsible for the overall management of metadata activities for ensuring the discoverability of new and existing content in Manchester’s Modern Collections. This includes embedding Open Access resources into the Library’s discovery interface. Research interests include: the future of bibliographic metadata (quality, interoperability, and ethics); and developing sustainable open metadata infrastructures for enabling equitable access to the scholarly resources that support teaching, learning, and research.
Beth Price is the E-Resources Metadata Specialist at the University of Manchester Library
Beth Price is the E-Resources Metadata Specialist on the Metadata and Discovery team at the University of Manchester Library, managing a group that use metadata to promote the accessibility of the library’s electronic resources. Beth has over 30 years’ experience of working in an academic library, both in public-facing and secondary support roles.
Kate Horton, Institutional Sales Manager, Manchester University Press
Kate has over 15 years of experience in academic publishing, following an earlier career as an academic bookseller. As Institutional Sales Manager at Manchester University Press (MUP), she works closely with academic institutions across the arts, humanities, and social sciences to identify their teaching and learning needs and provide tailored eBook solutions to support them. Kate also manages MUP’s global distribution partnerships, ensuring the Press’s digital content reaches libraries and researchers worldwide. She is passionate about delivering accessible, relevant, and sustainable scholarly resources that align with the University of Manchester’s Sustainable Development Goals. Kate is an active member of MUP’s accessibility and social responsibility working groups, reflecting her commitment to equitable access to knowledge.
Jen Mellor, Head of Operations, Manchester University Press
As Head of Operations for Manchester University Press, Jen is responsible for the effective delivery of business operations and systems across the organisation. This includes overseeing the distribution of MUP’s print and digital content via global retail and institutional channels, ensuring the timely and optimal dissemination of metadata to discovery service partners, and delivering MUP’s annual royalty payment cycle. Jen is on the Publishers Association AI taskforce and the EvenUP accessibility working group. She has an interest in embedding a digital-first culture at MUP, and maintaining systems and practices that achieve compliance with legislation and industry standards for accessibility, sustainability and metadata excellence.
Jessica Thompson, Senior Digital Sales and Marketing Coordinator, Manchester University Press
Jessica is the Senior Digital Sales and Marketing Coordinator at Manchester University Press, where she works with Kate Horton to oversee the promotion and dissemination of the Press’s digital publishing portfolio. She plays a key role in developing relationships with libraries, ensuring that MUP’s digital collections effectively support research, teaching, and learning across the humanities and social sciences, through her marketing activities and account management as well as through active participation in the Press’ Library Services Team. With six years’ worth of experience in academic publishing, Jessica is committed to helping libraries enhance access to high-quality scholarship and to advancing the mission-driven values of university press publishing.