Project MUSE Book Collection Details Now Available

[Ann Okerson <aokerson@gmail.com>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Project MUSE <muse@press.jhu.edu>
Date: Mon, Oct 3, 2011 at 4:03 PM
Subject: Project MUSE News: MUSE Book Collection Details Now Available

For Immediate Release October 3, 2011

Project MUSE Releases Details on New Book Collections

Details on the highly anticipated Project MUSE Book Collections 
are now available. Going live on January 1, 2012, the collections 
will feature over 14,000 electronic titles from 66 respected 
university press and scholarly publishers. The collections will 
provide libraries, researchers, and students access to a wealth 
of high quality book-length scholarship, including both new and 
classic titles, fully integrated with the over 500 journal titles 
in MUSE's electronic journal collections, in a user-friendly 
environment with rich discovery features.

Project MUSE books will be offered in PDF format, searchable and 
retrievable to the chapter level, with unlimited simultaneous 
usage, no DRM, and no restrictions on printing or downloading. 
COUNTER-compliant usage statistics, as well as free MARC records, 
will be available.

In early 2011, Project MUSE began cooperating on its ebook 
initiative with the University Press Content Consortium (UPCC), 
an assembly of major university presses and related scholarly 
publishers that grew out of extensive research into a viable 
model for a collaborative electronic book offering. This 
cooperation will now make thousands of peer-reviewed scholarly 
books available digitally, many for the first time, via the 26 
book collections Project MUSE will initially offer for perpetual 
access purchase.

Information on available Project MUSE Book Collections, along 
with detailed title lists, is accessible on the MUSE web site. 
Libraries may request pricing for book collections by using this 
form. Several flexible purchase and payment options are offered, 
with special pricing incentives for select purchases of multiple 
book collections. Orders may be placed at any time, with access 
to content beginning on January 1, 2012.

Current Collections for Purchase

The launch of books on MUSE will allow libraries and other 
institutions to purchase Current Collections comprised of content 
published or scheduled to publish in 2010, 2011, and 2012, 
available as single-year collections or with special discounts 
for the purchase of multiple years. Current Complete Collections 
include all books available across all disciplines for the 
applicable calendar year, while Current Subject Collections offer 
books in selected disciplines by calendar year. Subject 
collections available include Archeology and Anthropology; Film, 
Theater and Performing Arts; Global Cultural Studies; Higher 
Education; History; Literature; Philosophy and Religion; Poetry, 
Fiction and Creative Non-Fiction; Political Science and Policy 
Studies; and United States Regional Studies.

The content in the book collections available for purchase on 
MUSE is stable, and the titles included for collections from 2011 
and earlier will not change. No additional titles will be added 
to these collections, and titles will not be removed unless a 
legal or copyright issue requires such action. Complete lists of 
the titles included in these collections are available for 
download from the MUSE web site.

For the forthcoming 2012 book collections, new titles will 
publish simultaneously in electronic and print formats. A 
preliminary, partial list of titles expected to be included in 
the 2012 collections is available. Prices for the 2012 
collections are based upon a guaranteed minimum number of titles 
to be delivered, derived from estimates provided by the 
participating publishers for the titles they intend to submit to 
MUSE. The list of expected 2012 titles will be updated frequently 
as specific title information becomes available from the 
publishers.

Archival Collections for Purchase and Subscription

MUSE is also offering archival Foundation Collections, consisting 
of thousands of titles published prior to 2010, allowing 
libraries to procure access to a critical mass of significant 
content from numerous university presses, across many 
disciplines, at very affordable prices. A Complete Foundation 
Collection with over 11,000 titles is available, along with 
several Subject Foundation Collections. The subjects include all 
those offered for the Current Collections (listed above), with 
the addition of Classical Studies and Language and Linguistics. 
Complete title lists for the Foundation Collections are also 
available. In future years, Supplemental Archive Collections will 
be offered to build upon the Foundation Collections, with content 
from additional publishers joining the MUSE digital books program 
and from currently participating publishers digitizing and 
contributing more backlist books.

MUSE will also offer an access-only subscription option, 
providing access to all books categorized by MUSE as archival 
during the period of the subscription. This collection will grow 
from year to year as more backlist titles are added to MUSE, and 
as current titles move into archive status. No ownership rights 
are provided with this option, and the subscription must be 
renewed annually to retain access to the content.

Sample MUSE Books on Beta Site

Over 300 free sample digital books from 27 publishers are 
currently available for browsing and searching at the MUSE beta 
site. The beta site, a sneak preview of the enhanced MUSE 
platform coming January 1, 2012, utilizes a sophisticated new 
cross-content, faceted search functionality, and allows browsing 
of books and journals side-by-side. A powerful new hierarchical 
subject structure permits users to drill down to the most 
relevant content, and encourages discovery. The beta site also 
includes the complete content from the over 500 distinguished 
scholarly journals now available on the current MUSE site. 
Visitors to the beta site have access to the same content for 
which they have rights on the current site, via their 
institutional affiliation and associated subscriptions. More 
information about the beta and MUSE's new interfacein this 
announcement.

For more information, please contact Project MUSE Customer 
Support.

Electronic Scholarly Book and Journal Collections 
http://muse.jhu.edu