Digital technologies, combined with library expertise in information management and bibliographic control, access, dissemination and preservation, have provided new opportunities for academic libraries to play a more active role in the publication of scholarly information. Over the past decade a number of Australian academic libraries, drawing on early initiatives in North American libraries, have established electronic presses in their institutions. This article examines the motivations behind these initiatives and their similarities and differences, and identifies some of the ways in which library-led e-publishing may change the scholarly communication environment. (Contains 26 notes.)