Re: Project MUSE response

[Steve Cohn <steve@dukeupress.edu>]

I am not sure what Kathleen Keane felt that she needed to correct in my
Open Letter to Librarians, posted to Liblicense a few days ago, but I do
want to make it perfectly clear that I agree with and endorse absolutely
everything Kathleen said in her response, copied below.

Project MUSE does remain a strong collaborative enterprise, it does
continue to expand steadily, it does contain and continue to add many
high-quality journals, and it does have (and continue to earn) very
strong support from the library community. It is precisely because of
that strong support that I felt the need to explain at length to the
library community our own decision-making process at Duke UP, and its
background.

As I said explicitly in my open letter, we at Duke certainly hope and
expect that Project MUSE will continue its success. 

Stephen A. Cohn, Director, Duke University Press
Box 90660 Duke University, Durham NC 27708
phone: 919/687-3606; fax 919/688-4574
http://www.dukeupress.edu/

-----Original Message-----

Dear LibLicense Readers,

I write on behalf of Project MUSE and The Johns Hopkins University Press,
of which I am Director.  On October 4, Steve Cohn posted an Open Letter
regarding the participation of Duke University Press in Project MUSE.  I
must correct and clarify a few points.

While we regret Duke's decision to not contribute new issues to MUSE for
specific journals, Project MUSE remains a very strong collaborative
enterprise. MUSE continues to expand the selection of high-quality
journals available through our online platform. Several established
publishers long associated with the project have committed additional
titles to the MUSE collections for 2005, including Oxford University
Press, Indiana University Press, and the Brookings Institution Press.

Prestigious publishers joining MUSE as new participants for 2005 include
the Hastings Center, the University of Pennsylvania Press, and the
American School of Classical Studies at Athens (publishers of Hesperia).
Fifty respected university presses and scholarly societies, each with a
distinctive and renowned scholarly journal program, plan to make their
journals available online via Project MUSE in 2005.

MUSE has consistently earned the support of the library community. It was
founded by the JHU library and press, and continues to benefit from a
close association.  More than 1,100 libraries worldwide participate
now, providing access to more than 9 million faculty and students. 
We have achieved a 95% or better renewal rate every year since launch in
1995. With input from librarians and publishers, MUSE recently introduced
a new pricing model designed to provide greater fairness, flexibility, and
predictability for subscribers, and to open up new opportunities for
smaller colleges and universities, special libraries, and international
libraries to benefit from the wealth of resources MUSE offers.

If librarians have any questions about the Project MUSE offerings or
pricing for 2005, please contact Melanie Schaffner, Sales and Marketing
Manager at melanie@muse.jhu.edu

If any readers have other questions about Project MUSE or the Johns
Hopkins University Press, please contact Aileen McHugh, Director of
Project Muse, at aileen@muse.jhu.edu or me at KK@press.jhu.edu.

Kathleen Keane
Director
The Johns Hopkins University Press