I am the math and stats librarian at University of Michigan Ann Arbor and I have the joy of being the person in my library that supports LaTeX, primarily around dissertation formatting as one of our learning and teaching groups was already doing that for Word and I have some LaTeX familiarity from my days as a mathematician. Before I started here it was something that did really fall through the cracks and there were over a dozen different dissertation templates that were floating around, all but one of which did not meet the formatting standards. My main job has been to just point people over and over again to the template that does work and every once in a while make some changes to it. I also do some Intro to LaTeX outside of my departments as none of the sciences or engineering seem to teach it as the mathematical sciences do. 

Hope this helps,

Sam

> On Jul 18, 2023, at 13:59, McDonald, Stephen <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> I think the first question to ask is who wants to use it?  I imagine that you brought up the issue because you have had a request or a use case for LaTeX.  Knowing who the audience is would help figuring out where support should come from.
> 
>                    Steve McDonald
>                    [log in to unmask]
> 
> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Code for Libraries <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Francis
>> Kayiwa
>> Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2023 12:14 PM
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: [External] Re: [CODE4LIB] What manner of creature is LaTeX?
>> 
>> Heya,
>> 
>> I was recently introduced to https://typst.app/ which IMO fills that niche of
>> enough LaTeX to get most of what you need.
>> 
>> Sincerely,
>> Francis
>> 
>>> On Tue, Jul 18, 2023, at 11:32 AM, Dan Johnson wrote:
>>> Dear List,
>>> 
>>> How do you all deal with LaTeX? The LaTeX Project describes it as a
>>> "high-quality typesetting system," but it *looks* similar to a few
>>> different software paradigms, and this makes it hard to figure out who
>>> on a university campus should be supporting it.
>>> 
>>> For example, one could make the case that it's an advanced, low-level
>>> form of word processing, which should therefore be supported with
>>> training and problem solving by central IT, who cover Microsoft Word and
>> Google Docs.
>>> But it's much more than WYSIWYG word processing, and support for IT
>>> would be a very heavy lift.
>>> 
>>> So maybe instead you think of it as a markup system. In that case,
>>> perhaps it's the library's digital scholarship center that should be
>>> providing support. Yet, it's not really used for the purposes of
>>> scholarly annotation and digital presentation of primary sources that TEI is.
>>> 
>>> Since it's used for creating beautifully-looking articles and books,
>>> perhaps it's a scholarly communication tool, and hence the schol comm
>>> division of the library should support it. But the biggest use case
>>> may be dissertation formatting, in which case perhaps a university's
>>> graduate school or office of research should take charge (especially
>>> if they provide a dissertation template).
>>> 
>>> But then, the software is especially good at formatting mathematical
>>> notations, and indeed, the vast majority of dissertations submitted
>>> with LaTeX formatting come from the school of science, so perhaps it
>>> is scientific computing software. In that case, maybe the college of
>>> science's departmental IT units should bear the brunt of support.
>>> 
>>> The final option, it seems to me, is to call it "just one of those
>>> very helpful things," like regex, that you won't see in any formal or
>>> informal learning environment, and so you have to figure it out on
>>> your own to be in the know.
>>> 
>>> How do you all parcel this out?
>>> 
>>> Best,
>>> Dan
>>> 
>>> --
>>> *Daniel Johnson, Ph.D.*
>>> *Interim Co-Director, Navari Family Center for Digital Scholarship *
>>> *English; Digital Humanities**; and Film, Television, and Theatre *
>>> *Librarian*
>>> 
>>> *University of Notre Dame*
>>> 250C Hesburgh Library
>>> Notre Dame, IN 46556
>>> o: 574-631-3457
>>> e: [log in to unmask]
>> 
>> Caution: This message originated from outside of the Tufts University
>> organization. Please exercise caution when clicking links or opening
>> attachments. When in doubt, email the TTS Service Desk at
>> [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> or call them directly at 617-627-3376.