New Resource Center for Campus-Based Publishing Partnerships
Meredith Benjamin
Communications Coordinator, AAUP
Libraries and university presses have always been inextricably bound up in each other’s success. While at its best this relationship can provide extensive benefits to the whole of scholarly communication, too often a lack of common understanding has led to conflicting interests. With the advent of digital publishing and the demand for new methods of scholarly communication, the need for the two institutions to share their strengths and resources is increasingly evident.
The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition’s (SPARC) new Campus-Based Publishing Partnerships Resource Center is designed to help institutions meet that need. SPARC Senior Consultant Raym Crow explained that the idea for the guide and resource center came from “a meeting on library-press collaborations in June 2007, sponsored by the libraries and presses of the University of California and the University of Michigan.” Crow said that participants at the meeting, all actively involved in collaborative publishing initiatives, were “describ[ing] a common set of issues that they needed to address,” and it became clear that there was “a great deal of duplicative effort being expended as new partnerships wrestled with the same issues.”
It was this convergence of concerns that led Crow to create the “Guide to Critical Issues.” The guide is a five-part, comprehensive overview of what form these partnerships might take and practical considerations of how they might work.
Out of the guide grew the web resource center, which expands on issues covered therein, and keeps the information in the guide dynamic and relevant. Among the resources available are case studies, a bibliography, and LIBPRESS, an email list devoted to discussion of publishing partnerships. The resource is unique in that it gathered perspectives from librarians, press staff, and some who are straddling the divide (such as Monica McCormick, Program Officer for Digital Scholarly Publishing at New York University).
The guide and case studies are focused specifically on library-press collaborations, but the guide’s introduction indicates that “most of the discussion applies as well to other academic units that may participate in campus-based publishing partnerships.”
The accompanying resources have been compiled by the editorial board, which was formed after the completion of the guide to direct and support the web resource. Crow emphasized the collaborative and interactive nature of the resource center, explaining that it is “designed to grow based on user feedback and participation.” Presses are encouraged both to submit sample planning documents and resources, and to submit suggestions on topics that they feel should be added or expanded to make the resources practically useful. The direction and experience of the editorial board has been particularly valuable in developing these resources, says Crow: “These are people who know what’s relevant, what’s current, and what’s needed by participants on both the press and library sides of a partnership.”
Laura Cerruti, Director of Digital Content Development at the University of California Press, and Catherine Mitchell, Director of the California Digital Library’s e-Scholarship Publishing Program at the University of California, are both editorial board members who bring to the table their experience of collaboration on University of California Publishing Services (UCPubS). Mitchell described how the two organizations had been “unofficially collaborating in an episodic or opportunistic way,” and eventually came to the realization that they lacked “any kind of ongoing formal relationship that took into account the formal structure of the collaboration.” It was at this point that they decided to work with Crow, as they “decided one-off projects were not going to be sustainable in the long-run,” and establish a more formal collaboration that takes into account “sustainability and scalability.”
UCPubS combines the open access expertise of the library with the production, print-on-demand, marketing, and distribution strengths of the press to serve the wider University of California community. Cerruti commented that it was a “reality check” for both the press and the library when Crow helped them put numbers to things and be realistic about the financial picture for their projects. The hope is that more partnerships will benefit from this sort of practical approach, and undertake the “explicit planning” Crow advocates.
Cerruti said she sees the partnerships as particularly important for presses in that they allow them to “take steps forward towards some of the new business models that are out there – especially open access.” She believes presses know that open access is becoming increasingly important, but may not always be sure how to implement it. Both Cerruti and Mitchell agree that partnering with libraries, many of which are already working on open access, can facilitate a press’s move toward open access models.
On the flip side, as libraries are increasingly called upon by their universities to take on publishing roles, it is important for them to take advantage of the valuable experience and expertise of presses. Mitchell explained that these partnerships also benefit content providers who “feel strongly about open access, but also want to provide print publication,” emphasizing the importance of providing all of these options in a way that is not detrimental to a press’s business model.
Both Cerruti and Mitchell highlighted the fact that partnerships strengthen the case for university support of a press, as they demonstrate the institutional service provided. Cerruti pointed out that the practical nature of the guide makes it very easy for presses to make a case to their university about the relevance of university presses.
In terms of early feedback from presses and libraries, Crow noted that a survey of LIBPRESS participants indicated that the practical examples have been the most valuable. The editorial board now “intend[s] to increase the number of case studies, sample plans, and financial templates, as well as the networking support available through the site.”
Once the resource center is completely populated, Mitchell envisions it “enabling people to get a picture of the different models of what this kind of collaboration can be,” and that this will assist in getting partners to a point where “libraries and presses speak the same language, or at least a compatible language.” Crow hopes that the resources may encourage presses to “take the lead in creating publishing partnerships.”
Cerruti described the resource center as “one-stop shopping for resources and papers published every week,” facilitating easier access to curated content for users who may not have the time to devote on their own. Her hope is that the guide and resources will “reduce some of the duplicative experiments going on so that we can learn from each other.”
A more in-depth look at the guide and resource center is well worth it to anyone interested in campus-based publishing partnerships and their associated issues.
Those interested in joining LIBPRESS, the online discussion forum on issues of “collaborative digital publishing projects and models,” may do so here: http://listserv.ucop.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A0=LIBPRESS-L.
Hear more about press collaborations at the AAUP Annual Meeting!
Friday, June 19: 1:45-3:00 pm
Plenary 2: Interpress Collaborations and Cross-Marketing Partnerships: Future Visions of Scholarly Communication (Panelists include Raym Crow and Laura Cerruti)
Saturday, June 20: 3:30-4:45
Library-Press Cooperation
(Moderator: Patrick Alexander, member of SPARC editorial board)
By Shaun Manning, Communications Coordinator, AAUP
While the opportunities and challenges of digital publishing remain hot button topics in the scholarly publishing community, the Romance Studies series from Penn State University Press represents a concrete example of how online and print-on-demand publishing can sustain projects that would otherwise not be possible. Originally titled Penn State Studies in Romance Literatures when it debuted in the early 1990s and discontinued early in the new century, the more broadly-based Romance Studies series allowed Penn State to continue publishing “first book” monographs in this field by taking advantage of new digital technologies.
“Penn State Romance Studies in large measure responded to the need to support an area of scholarship that was underserved, expanded its editorial focus to move beyond simply ‘literature’ to include film, theatre, translations, and other foreign language-related titles,” said Patrick H. Alexander, Co-Director of Penn State’s Office Digital Scholarly Publishing (ODSP), which oversees Romance Studies, and Associate Director/Editor-in-Chief of Penn State University Press. In addition to the four books currently available on the Romance Studies site, Penn State plans to release future titles at a rate of about three per year.
“This development coincided with the university’s press and libraries creating the Office of Digital Scholarly Publishing (ODSP), under the leadership of Editor-in-Chief Peter Potter (now editor-in-chief at Cornell University Press) and Bonnie MacEwan (now dean of libraries at Auburn University),” Alexander explained. “Now co-directed by Michael J. Furlough, assistant dean of the libraries at Penn State, and myself, ODSP brings to bear the strengths of both library and press to experiment with making the volumes available–––at least initially–––both digitally and in a traditional, but ‘on-demand,’ print format.” He added that the press handles traditional publishing concerns, including peer review, copy editing, and design, while the library creates and hosts the online version using DPubS software, a platform originally developed for Cornell’s Project Euclid.
Given that the Romance Studies titles are available for sale in a print format as well as having significant portions available for free online, there was, at Penn State as with other presses exploring digital models, some concern as to whether the availability of these free chapters would ultimately hurt sales of the print volume. “Indeed there were concerns, and the jury’s still out,” Alexander said. “We wrestled with the conflict of interest between an Open Access online version and a printed edition. If the volume were available online, who would buy the print?” He added that the press’s partnership with the library alleviated many costs associated with digital publishing and distribution, but that print sales were still very important to offset the editorial, production, and other overhead costs of publishing.
“We weighed various options: no access, partial access, degraded print access, and full access,” Alexander said. ODSP’s solution was to offer all of books’ content available as chapter-by-chapter downloadable PDFs, but only around 50% of each book will be printable from these files. “It’s possible that some potential readers of Romance Studies titles will be happier to get a single chapter or do a short check online, rather than buy a book. But the online reading experience will not replicate the in-print experience, nor will printing out a whole book on the laser printer really replace the book.” He noted that the open access model presents an opportunity for greater dissemination of scholarship, but that questions remain as to how a majority of users will interact with the material in digital and print formats. For example, are the PDFs read on screen or printed out? What would each case indicate as to how Penn State should offer the Romance Studies books? Are users likely to print out an entire book, if all chapters were available, rather than simply purchasing a bound copy? “The problem is that we won’t be able to definitely prove these assumptions unless we can discover what motivates our readers’ behavior,” Alexander said.
Regardless of the challenges, though, the Romance Studies list from Penn State Press and the university’s Office of Digital Scholarly Publishing represents an important step for the press as it navigates the changing landscape of scholarly communication. “We recognize that standing still is not an option when the flow of knowledge and information and the demand of users for digital content are so great,” Alexander said. “ODSP has become a sort of Petrie dish that permits us to experiment in ways that as simply a ‘press’ we would not be able to do. In a noncompetitive environment, it allows the press to learn more about its own strengths and weaknesses and how to bring those to bear in fulfilling the university’s overall mission to disseminate knowledge and information.
“The Penn State Romance Studies series also represents a commitment to experimenting with ‘open access’ to book content that was emphasized as an imperative in AAUP’s Statement on Open Access drafted by our director, Sanford Thatcher, so as to help bridge the growing ‘digital divide’ between book and journal content in the OA world.”
By Shaun Manning
Communications Coordinator, AAUP
Though debate over digital publishing and open access is still far from resolved, university presses are beginning to take bold steps in the hope of innovation. Perhaps out of necessity, and certainly driven by mission statements promoting the dissemination of scholarly research, academic publishers have taken the lead in exploring the implications of open access and the real and perceived differences between web-based and print publications.
Recently, the University of Pittsburgh Press has announced that it is working to make selected backlist titles available online, free of charge, through Pitt’s University Library System (ULS). The first of the Pitt Press collections to be made available online is the Latin American Series, with thirty-nine titles already presented for open access. Readers of the digital editions can click on any chapter or article from the table of contents, and then browse through the entire book. It is also possible to download individual pages as PDF documents, perform a full-text search of the book, and skip to any page using a drop-down menu.
A product of shared objectives between University of Pittsburgh’s press and libraries, this collaboration follows a trend of increasing cooperation between such custodians of research. “This pilot project emerged from a series of discussions which addressed areas of common concern regarding emerging technologies, the dissemination of scholarship, trends in both the sales and usage patterns of various forms of media, and the appropriate roles of both the library and the Press in the scholarly communication system,” said Peter Kracht, Editorial Director and Director of Electronic Publishing at University of Pittsburgh Press.
The partnership benefits the libraries by offering additional content for their electronic catalog, while providing the press with an opportunity to enter the digital arena with a more robust presence than it could otherwise achieve. ULS will be responsible for all costs associated with the program, and will also employ its technology assets and infrastructure toward digitizing the press’s backlist. “As a smaller university press, frankly Pittsburgh lacked the independent capacity to launch a major digital publishing initiative on our own. The Pitt library, which has long held substantial collections of public-domain materials in a number of subject areas, had already invested in the equipment and staff to provide a scanning as well as digital storage and search capabilities to access this material,” Kracht said. “It was not hard for both sides to see the advantages of cooperating on a initiative such as this.”
D-Scribe, ULS’s digital archive, already has a formidable database of open-access digital content. Drawing on resources from the University of Pittsburgh Library system, the university’s digital thesis program, and other cultural institutions, D-Scribe’s archive includes more than sixty collections of photography, archival documents, theses and dissertations, and electronic journals. But with the addition of the press’s Digital Editions, the University Library System may eventually acquire up to five hundred titles.
As with other digital publishing ventures that make commercially available material accessible for free online, University of Pittsburgh Press will be tracking the effects of the D-Scribe project on sales of printed books during this experimental phase. But this will only be one factor in determining how the initiative progresses. According to Kracht, the launch of UPP’s Digital Editions has been coordinated so as to highlight factors beyond sales and revenue, by selecting titles and a list that would be less vulnerable to cannibalization and to which the press has undisputed claims to the electronic rights. “
Inherent in this process is an exploration of the changing role of university presses and evaluating the options available to presses in a digital environment. “It may be that the lessons we learn suggest the need for some rethinking about the best ways to underwrite the dissemination of scholarship than the traditional consumer-pays-for-print-edition system,” Kracht said. He suggested that what may eventually emerge is a system by which print and digital media complement each other across markets, and this assertion has been supported by research into electronic publishing carried out by other member presses. Certainly, the benefits of having digital editions exist side by side with print publications would include increased access to scholarly research and the option of a format of presentation that is convenient for different users.
Like other university presses that have entered into digital publishing endeavors, the University of Pittsburgh Press has needed to make a series of decision as to format and access. Its publishing model is similar to University of Michigan’s digitalculturebooks site, in which the university’s press and library joined to create online versions of new media publications. (See “dcbooks Tests the Digital Waters,” The Exchange, Winter/Spring 2007). But unlike another project, put forth by the National Academies Press, Pittsburgh does not allow users to download the entire book or individual chapters as PDF documents. NAP charges a fee for this format and offers full-text browsing on the site for free, while Pitt maintains only the free browsing model.
Though the landscape of digital publishing is always shifting and the research of various organizations is constantly adjusting publisher strategies, Kracht sees online content as a necessary component of Pitt’s mission-based publishing program. “The combination of digital format with open access allows us to provide a genuine service to the international scholarly community by making this material readily available in the region and beyond.”
The University of Pittsburgh Press Digital Editions can be found at: http://digital.library.pitt.edu/p/pittpress/
The ULS Digital Library homepage is http://www.library.pitt.edu/
By Michael McCutcheon
The University of Iowa Press had considered developing an internship program for several years—thinking of what the Press wanted and could offer, planning the logistics of recruitment, and researching other internship programs on and off campus. Yet it wasn’t until the spring semester of 2005 that the idea took root.
Having been invited to give a talk about a career in publishing to the undergraduate students enrolled in the university’s English Honors Program, Holly Carver, the Press Director, met her counterpart, Mary Anne Rasmussen, the Director of the undergraduate English program. The two quickly found themselves on the same page regarding a formal internship program. “It’s the sort of thing everybody loves,” said Carver. In part, it provides the kind of hands-on experience for undergrads that leads to jobs, while pushing the university to further recognize the advantages of having a press.
The relationship between the press and the English Honors Program imparts prestige to the internship and ensures that the Press receives high-aptitude students. “Publishing has become more and more professionalized, it’s become much more of a career,” said Joe Parsons, Acquisitions Editor, University of Iowa Press. “We are reflecting that professionalization.”
Several of the students who attended Carver’s talk would later become some of the first interns in the program. “The point of the talk was to introduce English students to what they could do,” remembered Sarah Remington (‘06). “Holly spoke, and her words, I’ll never forget them, ‘Publishing is an excellent place for high performing introverts.’ That struck a chord…. The first feeling, in a long time, that there was a place for me in the professional world.”
Applying to become an intern at the Iowa Press is the same as applying for any other job. Prospective interns fill out a general application, and a few are then chosen for in-person interviews. The last hurdle is a difficult copyediting test. Once chosen, interns are asked to work 10-15 hours per week on top of their regular course-load. Students register for the internship each semester with the university’s registrar. Although they don’t receive course credit for the experience, the registration ensures that the experience shows up on their transcript, providing the student with an incentive to work for free. “I knew publishing was a competitive field—all those English majors that don’t go to grad school,” said Laura Avey (’06). “I wanted the experience before I tried to get the job.”
In Iowa’s program, intern tasks are standardized in the form of a checklist. The intern meets with the director and editors twice a year to go over the duties they’ve been given. These can include evaluating manuscripts, finding readers for a manuscript, filling out Library of Congress forms, writing rejection letters, and fact-checking, among other tasks. The program culminates in a final project that often tests the intern’s abilities—a book launch. “I hand off the project to each of the students,” says Parsons, “and they launch the book, running the agenda at the launch meeting. Some find that task very intimidating. They come into the meeting and get unanticipated questions.” But it is their chance to stand at the “head of a conference table and present the material to colleagues.”
Bringing along interns at this speed does require significant time from the staff. Asked what her duties are when it comes to the interns, Charlotte Wright, Managing Editor, responds, “I help interview and then choose the interns, work with them to set up their work schedules, introduce them to the primary reference books…teach them the various procedures necessary for the work that comes out of my office, check their completed projects, and make myself available to answer any questions they have about publishing.” The natural follow-up question was, “Is it worth it?” To which Wright’s reply was, “Definitely.”
The interns bring a number of intangibles that go beyond the completion of office tasks. Parsons remarked enthusiastically that, “the interns are enthusiastic, everything is new to them…. It forces us to think again about the jobs we do. It keeps the job fresh for us. In the process, we reconsider the way we do things.” Wright complemented this view with the observation that, “We get to meet the young, motivated individuals who are in all likelihood the future of university press publishing. Often, we are their first contact with the publishing world, so we have an incredible opportunity to influence their philosophy and work ethic.”
For the interns’ part, they enjoy the experience of working at the Press and being involved in the workflow. “I spoke with Joe every day and Charlotte almost every day,” Avey remarked. “Joe would come down to the kitchen and tell me about a manuscript, about his sales pitches to get an author to publish with Iowa…but it wasn’t all work. We would also talk about politics, local events, and sports.” Sarah Remington added that, when the internship was over, “I felt comfortable operating in a work environment. That was something I couldn’t learn from school. Something I could have only learned from [the Press]. Little things, like when to ‘cc’ people…what to say in a meeting, what things are helpful, how to ask colleagues to do something for you.”
So far, the program has been a success. Of the four interns to go through the Iowa program, “one is at Chicago, two are at Michigan, and one hasn’t graduated yet,” remarked Carver, “We’re batting 1.000.” And whether it is setting up informational meetings between interns and potential employers at the AAUP Annual Meeting, or other general lobbying on their behalf, the Iowa Press graduates top interns that find their way back into scholarly publishing.
“At Iowa, Joe, Holly, and Charlotte realized that even though we were ‘just interns,’ we were intelligent people who could handle difficult tasks,” said Avey, who now works at the University of Chicago Press. When asked about any tasks she didn’t like, she responded, “making copies. But alas, that is part of the point of having interns. I have a student now that I have make copies. I’ve learned to delegate.”
Ithaka, a nonprofit research group affialted wiith JSTor and ARTstor, has released a new report, “University Publishing in a Digital Age,” authored by Laura Brown (formerly of Oxford USA), Rebecca Griffiths, and Matthew Rascoff. Based on extensive surveys of and interviews with press directors, librarians, and university administrators, the report argues that universities must renew their commitment to publishing in order to maintain a strong role in the creation and distribution of scholarship.
Read it: http://www.ithaka.org/strategic-services/university-publishing
Update: The University of Michigan’s Scholarly Publishing Office has created an edition of the Ithaka Report in CommentPress, allowing a conversation about the report and its conclusions to take place next to the text itself.
Go to http://scholarlypublishing.org/ithakareport/ to read the report and participate in the discussion.