Posted by: site admin @ 9:29 am
David Sewell, Editorial and Technical Manager, ROTUNDA, University of Virginia Press
Kenneth Reed, Digital Production Specialist, The University of North Carolina Press
Any university press considering an XML-based workflow for monographs (whether from start to finish or as an archival format) has likely discovered that the first question may also be the knottiest: what kind of XML? Or to put it in more technically accurate terms, which XML language? The answer is far from obvious. The book markup language developed by the Association of American Publishers as long ago as the 1980s (originally in the ancestor of XML, SGML) is an international standard—ISO 12083—but to our knowledge it has been adopted by no university press other than California, and even then it required extensive modification. DocBook is well established as an authoring and archival language for books and serves publishers like O’Reilly as a natural format for “one source, many output” workflows, but it is highly optimized for technical documentation and lacks native markup elements for many structural features common in humanities and social science texts. (The University of Michigan Press has adopted it for production of some of their monograph titles, however.) EPUB/XHTML is perfectly suited to its purpose of encoding books for presentation on a wide variety of mobile devices, but its relatively impoverished set of structural and semantic tags may limit its value as an archival format for scholarly works.
An alternative increasingly being investigated is the markup language developed by the Text Encoding Initiative, or TEI, designed for the ambitious goal of creating machine-readable versions of texts in virtually any genre, from any historical period, and in any natural language. Following organizational work in the late 1980s, the first version of the TEI Guidelines was released in 1990, and was quickly adopted as the markup standard for a wide array of projects housed within university libraries and research departments engaged in digitizing books, manuscripts, drama, correspondence, and even mixed collections of text and images. Today there are literally thousands of texts encoded in TEI and in many cases published via the Web, often accompanied by a variety of full-text and data search tools (see http://www.tei-c.org/Activities/Projects/ for a list of over 100 such sites). The TEI Guidelines are actively maintained and developed by the TEI Consortium, with an international group of directors and editors from a variety of scholarly and professional backgrounds.
Clearly TEI-XML can be used to produce archival machine-readable versions of published books; existing off-the-shelf tools can be used to convert those files to HTML, PDF, and EPUB, although achieving results satisfactory to a professional publisher will usually require more or less customization. But is TEI-XML a viable answer to the XML workflow question? Can a publisher develop in-house procedures for converting existing books to an archival TEI format, or find a vendor capable of doing so? Alternatively, is it feasible to insert TEI-XML into the authoring workflow, so that it becomes the underlying source of both print and digital versions of a book? Over the past year or so, members of both the TEI and the university press communities have been meeting online and in person to address such questions.
The TEI Guidelines in their current form (version “P5”) are incredibly rich and comprehensive (over 1,400 pages in PDF form!), so approaching them can be quite daunting. The TEI Special Interest Groups (SIGs) were created to allow individuals to share ideas and develop much more focused uses of TEI. For the most part, these SIGs have been based in the academy, and centered on humanities scholarship, but they are open to anyone. The Scholarly Publishing SIG was created in June 2009 in order to explore the use of TEI in original scholarly publication. One of the aims of this SIG is to make TEI an attractive choice when deciding upon which XML language to use. XML is a costly investment: there will be a lot of time and resources devoted to its implementation. The university press community needs to collaborate on this front, and this SIG would serve as the starting point for progress. It will enable presses interested in using TEI to share developments with peer institutions as well as with the wider TEI community.
It is quite common to hear that TEI is a standard that is not implemented in any standard way. The SIG maintains a Wiki page that has a section on recommended practices. This document is still in its inception, but the purpose will be to create, through a collaborative process, a set of encoding guidelines that presses can use, either in XML-first or XML-last workflows. These guidelines could be used for in-house composition, or they could be supplied to encoding vendors for conversion after print publication. If enough presses adopt these guidelines, they could be used to set up common encoding practices and offer advantages when approaching vendors for XML encoding work, in much the same way that TEI Tite is being developed. These guidelines may lead to a specific customization of TEI for publishing, across books and journals.
The SIG will also focus on the XML workflow itself, and the tools required for such a workflow. There exists already a roundtrip transformation from Microsoft Word to TEI that could be improved upon through real-world use cases. Similarly, there are transformations for TEI to HTML and to EPUB. These need to be investigated and refined as well.
Another benefit that could be derived from a collaborative effort among university presses is the creation of a set of quality control rules using the rule-based validation language Schematron. Having well-formed and valid XML is only the first step—the XML needs to be checked with the same care and attention given to the print version. Having high-quality XML for use as the archival format for our content is vital. Presses need to be assured of this quality when they use the XML version to generate other formats, such as HTML or EPUB—or even for later editions in print. Creating a set of rules that every press can use to test their content would greatly aid in this effort.
A symposium was held at the Digital Humanities Observatory in Dublin on 28 April 2010 (see http://dho.ie/node/673) in order to discuss the growing interest in the use of TEI in scholarly publishing. The TEI community discussed their possible emerging role in scholarly communication and publishing. While the symposium ended with the question very much open, it was clear that coordination of work through the SIG was required. The TEI community has yet to decide whether they should focus their energies on tool development in this area, or on a specific customization of TEI for publishing, or even if they should engage in the publishing process directly. The university press community should take this moment to work together with the TEI community in order to make the transition to digital publishing.
Posted by: site admin @ 10:07 am
Judging of the 2010 AAUP Book, Jacket, & Journal show took place January 28-29 at the AAUP Central Office in New York. Throughout its history, the AAUP Book, Jacket, & Journal Show has honored the design and production teams who further a long tradition of excellence in book design. Approximately 281 books, 286 jacket and cover design entries, and 8 journals were entered. 56 books, 1 journal, and 40 jackets/covers were chosen by the jurors as the very best examples from this pool of excellent design.
These selected entries will be displayed at the premiere of the 2010 Book, Jacket, & Journal Show during the AAUP Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City, June 17-20, 2010.
View the 2010 Selected Entries:
http://www.aaupnet.org/programs/marketing/designshow/winners2010.html
Posted by: site admin @ 10:00 am
The 2009 Book, Jacket, and Journal Show will begin traveling to member presses for exhibition this month. The show debuted at the 2009 AAUP Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, June 18-21. Between September and May, the selected entries will travel throughout the United States and Canada as they are exhibited at 34 presses, visually teaching the tenets of good design.
The schedule for the traveling exhibit is now available online. The schedule is available for viewing either by state or province, or by month.
Judging for the 2009 AAUP Book, Jacket, & Journal Show took place on January 22-23 at the AAUP Central Office in New York. Throughout its history, the AAUP Book, Jacket, & Journal Show has honored the design and production teams who further a long tradition of excellence in book design, and—through the traveling exhibition and catalog—has visually taught the tenets of good design. Judges this year reviewed almost 600 entries in a range of categories At the conclusion of the judging, they selected 53 books, 1 journal, and 36 jackets/covers as the best examples of excellent design.
The 2009 Book, Jacket, and Journal Show will premiere at the AAUP Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, June 18-21, 2009. The complete schedule for the 2009 traveling exhibition will be released in late summer. Forms to request the show for exhibit at your campus or institution will be available this summer.
View the 2009 selected entries:
http://www.aaupnet.org/programs/marketing/designshow/winners2009.html
View photos of the judging here:
http://www.aaupnet.org/programs/marketing/designshow/2009photos/index.html
Posted by: site admin @ 4:52 pm
Harvard University Press and Maple-Vail Join Forces for Debut of Eco-Friendly Printing Process
Meredith Benjamin
Communications Coordinator, AAUP
The Dismal Science, by Stephen Marglin, became the first book published using the new THINKTech™ printing process on June 18. The debut printing was the result of a collaboration between Harvard University Press and Maple-Vail Book Manufacturing Group. Described by Harvard University Press’s Assistant Director for Design and Production, John Walsh, as “one of the biggest things I’ve ever heard of in the printing world in terms of eco-friendliness,” the new technology dramatically reduces the emission of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) and eliminates the use of natural-gas-fed ovens.
Maple-Vail has strong ties to the scholarly publishing community and is currently working with 60 university presses. Bill Long, Maple-Vail’s Vice President of Sales and Marketing, explained that they chose to partner with Harvard University Press on this new process because of Harvard’s long-standing relationship with Maple-Vail and their visible commitments to environmental issues and sustainability. Maple-Vail is one of Harvard University Press’s biggest vendors, and Walsh echoed Long’s sentiment in describing the Harvard/Maple-Vail relationship as a “strategic partnership.”
Both Harvard UP and Maple Vail are members of the Green Press Initiative (GPI), and both are signatories to its Industry Treatise for Responsible Paper Use. As an inaugural member of the Book Industry Environmental Council, Maple-Vail was a sponsor of the recent study on the book industry’s carbon footprint (AAUP also sponsored this study). As part of its commitment to GPI, Maple-Vail stocks paper with high post-consumer recycled waste content, which Harvard agreed to use in the printing of The Dismal Science. Walsh described Harvard University Press’s participation in this new printing process as emblematic of their desire to be a part of the leadership of GPI, and said they were thrilled to be asked to participate with Maple-Vail.
Given the current push across industries for green and sustainable business practices, it comes as no surprise that Maple-Vail’s Bill Long cites “strong evidence in the marketplace of an interest in pursuing more eco-friendly book manufacturing alternatives.” Harvard UP knew the initative would be of interest to the university community, and promoted the initiative around campus, where it was subject of a press release and a feature in the weekly Harvard newspaper.
The THINKTech™ process, developed by Maple-Vail and Amerikal Products Corporation, uses a line of sustainable chemistry called Genesis in place of traditional pressroom chemistry. The process greatly reduces use of both natural gas and electricity, as it eliminates the need for gas-fired ovens, chill drums, chill water compressors, electrical pumps, silicone applicators, and electrically powered blowers. Both VOC ink levels and VOC emissions are dramatically reduced, while all federal and state regulated toxins (silicone, federal 313 chemicals and Hazardous Air Pollutants [HAPs]) are eliminated. In addition to these environmental benefits, the technology is also a boon to productivity: it expedites the drying process while improving the quality, producing non-way books that are odor-free.
Both parties were extremely pleased with the outcome of the initial printing. Demonstrating the press’s satisfaction with the results, Walsh said, “I actually passed the book around to people and no one could tell the difference [from the earlier edition].” Following the success of The Dismal Science’s printing, Maple-Vail has been printing a number of both straight text and illustrated titles using the THINKTech™ process. Bill Long explained that, “Maple-Vail is now using the ThinkTech process on a full-time basis on a portion of our web and sheetfed presses. We are in the process of expanding its use across our press platform with a goal to eventually convert the entire pressroom at both of our plant locations to the ThinkTech™ process.” While noting that the decision to use the process lies with the printer, and not the press, Walsh said he would have “no qualms” about this process being used for more Harvard books.
Asked about the choice of The Dismal Science as the book for the initial printing, Walsh explained, “We were looking for a book that connected us back with Harvard University, and [the author] Stephen Marglin is a senior professor in the Economics Department.” Walsh highlighted the press’s desire to connect with the mission of the expansive Harvard Green Campus Initiative set forth by the university and “be out front ourselves.”
Currently the only printer utilizing this new technology, Long said the process creates no additional cost for the customer. Although the ink used in the THINKTech™ process is more expensive, Long explains that this cost is offset by the gains in “decreased waste, higher productivity, and an improvement in print quality.” Long also indicated that he believes this technology will eventually spread beyond book-publishing to the printing industry at large.
For more on the Green Press Initiative and the Book Industry Environmental Council, see past Exchange articles:
“AAUP Participates in Book Industry Environmental Council”
“Publishing’s Carbon Footprint”
Posted by: site admin @ 4:35 pm
By Julia Fauci, Design/Production Manager, Northern Illinois University Press
On June 11 I represented the AAUP at the first meeting of the the Book Industry Environmental Council (BIEC) held at the corporate headquarters of Random House in New York City. Brenna McLaughlin from AAUP also attended. This group was formed at the urging of Tyson Miller of Green Press Initiative, though it is not under his direction. In attendance were a complimentary mix of publishers, paper manufacturers, book printers, and booksellers. Half of the group met around a large conference table, while half attended via phone hook up.
Prior to arriving in New York I queried my fellow AAUP book designers and production managers about what kind of eco-book, forest-friendly logo would work for them when designing and producing university press books. I reproduced this on-line discussion in pdf form and handed it out to my fellow BIEC members. Almost all AAUP designers wanted a line-art logo that did not interfere in the design of the dust jacket but still graphically conveyed a message of environmental certification.
At the BIEC meeting a lively discussion about the book industry’s ecological footprint dominated a large part of the session, with some paper manufacturers maintaining that the books themselves qualified as “carbon sequestration” and should be calculated as offsets to the burning of fossil fuels during paper manufacture. Also discussed were the requirements of a universal BIEC logo and what such a logo’s function and appearance should be. Concerns were raised about “logo bloat” and “greenwashing” where logos cease to advance meaning or educate consumers. The largest number of attendees signed up to be on the Logo Subcommittee, myself included.
The first phone meeting of the logo subcommittee was on July 31st. I was regretfully out of the office and could not attend, but here are the highpoints gleaned from the minutes:
********
Publisher vs Product Certification:
Through consensus it was decided to certify publishers rather than books, making it much easier to verify compliance. A publisher could be audited once a year, rather than verifying thousands of titles. This would allow a publisher to make last minute changes without having to change certification on the title page and jacket.
Scorecard Approach to Certification:
The scorecard approach provides publishers with a ladder of environmental goals to achieve while getting credit for what they are already doing for the environment, giving them credit for the small steps they may have taken. A scorecard approach would involve people from all levels of a company and it could increase and formalize communication between publishers and suppliers.
Proposed changes to Scorecard:
Awarding points for calculating carbon footprint may alienate small publishers that do not have resources to conduct the necessary analysis. Instead, points should be awarded for accomplishments that would have the effect of reducing a company’s carbon footprint such as installing efficient lighting, reducing travel, etc. Relative weighting of transportation should be increased.
Inks would be difficult for publishers to track, as printers may change brand of inks frequently. This info would be especially difficult to track for those printing offshore.
********
If anyone from the AAUP has a query regarding the Book Industry Environmental Council, please contact Julia Fauci, Design/Production Manager, Northern Illinois University Press, 2280 Bethany Road, DeKalb, IL 60115
Posted by: site admin @ 3:35 pm
Sylvia Hecimovich
Design and Production Director, University of Chicago Press
The AAUP Production & Design Managers meeting was held in Chicago, May 7-10, 2008, at the Hard Rock Hotel, in the beautiful Carbide and Carbon Building. Built by the sons of Daniel Burnham, legend has it that this building was designed to resemble a dark green champagne bottle with gold foil at the top.
A record number of attendees, 174 in total, enjoyed this landmark setting, including 109 individuals from 50 member presses (29 from Chicago), 13 freelancers, and 52 individuals representing 39 vendors. We were delighted and grateful to have had so many in attendance.
The session topics included digital asset management, building a freelance pool, book design, type (discussed by Jonathan Hoefler), proofs, and short-run digital printing. The concurrent roundtable sessions included discussions and demos on various databases such as the online production schedule, Phoenix (an acquisition and production database), BiblioVault, art evaluation, typography, cover design and cover art resources, and digital asset submission manager. There were also available tours of the Newberry Library and the Chicago Digital Distribution Center and BiblioVault.
We did a few things differently this year. Vendors were asked to participate in sessions rather than set up exhibit booths. The AAUP Book, Jacket, and Journal Show was on display throughout the meeting. We also asked presses to contribute F&G’s (folded and gathered sheets) for students in the Master Bookbinding class at Columbia College’s Center for Book and Paper Arts to create eight sets one-of-a-kind bindings. The original bindings were on display at the reception held at the Art Institute of Chicago, and one set was raffled off to a very lucky winner.
We think the meeting was a huge success, and thanks to everyone who helped, from our colleagues at North Carolina and Duke Heidi Perov and Deb Wong, who so graciously passed along their notes and advice from last year’s meeting, to Betsy Litz at Princeton, who brought chocolate bars to the staff at the registration desk, to our generous vendors, and last but not at all least, to the staff at Chicago who worked tirelessly, productively, and creatively to host a great meeting!
Posted by: site admin @ 9:01 am
Judging of the 2008 Book, Jacket, and Journal Show was held on January 17-18 at the AAUP Office in New York City. Jurors selected a total of 44 books, 2 journals, and 31 jackets and covers.
The 2008 Book, Jacket, and Journal Show will premiere at the AAUP Annual Meeting in Montréal, June 26-29, 2008. The show will then travel around the country from September 2008 to May 2009.
Since 1965, the AAUP Book, Jacket, and Journal Show has fulfilled its mission to “honor and instruct”: honoring the design and production teams whose work furthers a long tradition of excellence in book design, and, through a traveling exhibit and acclaimed annual catalog of selected entries, visually teaching the tenets of good design. 
For the complete list and show details, go to: http://aaupnet.org/programs/marketing/designshow/winners2008.html
Posted by: site admin @ 8:50 am
Since 1965, the AAUP Book, Jacket, and Journal Show has honored the design and production teams who further a long tradition of excellence in book design, and—through the traveling exhibition and catalog—has visually taught the tenets of good design. Of the 293 books, 335 jackets and covers, and 6 journals that were entered, the 2007 jurors chose 51 books, 32 jackets/covers, and 2 journals as the very best examples of university press design.
The 2007 jury included Linda Gustafson, principal, Counterpunch Book Design; Patricia Curtan, Graphic Designer/Illustrator; John Gall, Vice President & Art Director, Vintage/Anchor Books; and Cameron Poulter, former Design & Production Manager, University of Chicago Press. Lynn Werts, University Press of Florida, chaired the 2007 Design and Production Committee.
Complete details on selected titles, as well as information about the designers and companies who donated time, paper, and printing to the 2007 Show, can be found at http://www.aaupnet.org/programs/marketing/designshow/winners2007.html.