Project MUSE News: Dean Smith named Director, Project MUSE

["Melanie Schaffner" <melanie@muse.jhu.edu>]

DEAN SMITH NAMED DIRECTOR, PROJECT MUSE

BALTIMORE (February 23, 2010) - The Johns Hopkins University 
Press (JHUP) is pleased to announce the appointment of Dean Smith 
as Director, Project MUSE. Smith will lead the Press' flagship 
electronic scholarly journals publishing program beginning March 
10, 2010. Project MUSE's innovative and collaborative approach to 
online publishing offers a fair and sustainable model for both 
libraries and publishers, and Smith will oversee an expansion to 
include more archival journal content on the MUSE platform and 
enhanced services to subscribers, content providers, and end 
users.

"We're delighted to welcome a highly regarded publishing 
professional like Dean to the Press and Project MUSE," said 
Kathleen Keane, Director of JHUP. "We expect his thorough 
understanding of the digital publishing environment and of the 
challenges faced by scholarly publishers to be great assets in 
guiding MUSE's future strategic initiatives and in maintaining 
its strong competitive position as a premier provider of online 
content in the humanities and social sciences."

Smith comes to JHUP with extensive publishing leadership 
experience and expertise in digital publishing initiatives, 
product management, technical direction, global sales and 
marketing, and strategic development. As Director of Content for 
the American Society for Training and Development, Smith created 
a digital publishing strategy for the society's periodical, book, 
and research publications. During a decade-plus tenure with the 
American Chemical Society, Smith oversaw dynamic growth in 
worldwide electronic access to the society's publications, 
designing innovative pricing models, emphasizing library customer 
relations, and implementing effective internal management 
systems. He previously spearheaded electronic publishing efforts 
for a variety of medical publication products at Chapman & Hall, 
and led traditional journal publishing programs at C&H and 
Springer-Verlag. An accomplished writer and published poet, he 
holds a BA from the University of Virginia, and an MFA in 
Creative Writing from Columbia University.

"I have been observing the progress of Project MUSE since its 
inception as one of the leading initiatives in electronic 
scholarly publishing, and have been greatly impressed by the 
expansion of content as well as the platform's enhanced web 
presence," said Smith. "I am both honored and excited to be 
joining MUSE and anticipate expanding its leadership position in 
the online scholarship community."

Project MUSE offers electronic access to over 400 peer-reviewed 
journal titles from more than 100 university press, society, and 
independent scholarly publishers. Researchers and students in 
over 60 countries access full-text, current and archival content 
on the MUSE platform through a model that provides fair and 
reasonable subscription options to institutions and a sustainable 
digital publishing option for not-for-profit content providers. 
MUSE pioneered university press electronic journal publishing in 
the humanities and the social sciences through a collaborative 
effort with the Johns Hopkins University's Milton S. Eisenhower 
Library, launching online access to publications from the JHU 
Press in 1995, and expanding to include titles from other 
publishers in 2000. For more on Project MUSE, visit 
http://muse.jhu.edu.

For more information, please contact Melanie Schaffner, 
mbs@press.jhu.edu.

Melanie Schaffner
Marketing and Sales Manager, Project MUSE
The Johns Hopkins University Press
Baltimore, MD 21218 USA
mbs@press.jhu.edu