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Re: whither university presses?



As I told Joe when he first showed this to me a couple of months ago (and allowed me to circulate it to all directors of presses that are members of the AAUP), it is the most sensible thing that has been written about university presses by someone not already working at one in years. I commend it to you all.

Sandy Thatcher
Penn State University Press

A signal article of interest to this readership, from a frequent
contributor to this list:

"The Wisdom of Oz: The Role of the University Press in Scholarly
Communications"
Joseph J. Esposito
Journal of Electronic Publishing, 10:1, Winter 2007
http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.3336451.0010.103

The current debate about scholarly communications is a two-sided
one, with advocates of Open Access policies lining up against
supporters of traditional publishing.  This is unfortunate, as any
plausible future for academic publishing will be pluralistic, with a
variety of models and ventures laboring side by side.  A particular
segment that warrants much closer attention is the world of the
university press, which combines many of the best elements of OA
publishing (mission-based, fair trading practices) with the
demonstrated strengths of traditional publishing (editorial review,
functioning business model).  Further, as university presses are
themselves a part of academic institutions, their programs can be
used to provide a new form of welcome competition to commercial
organizations, who do not necessarily proceed with the academy's
best interests at heart.

Terry Ehling
Director
Center for Innovative Publishing
Cornell University Library
Ithaca, NY  14853