Re: University Presses To Publish Books Online at JSTOR

[Joseph Esposito <espositoj@gmail.com>]

Putting aside the matter of a move to open access for
aggregations of monographs, I hope it is clear to the members of
this list that we are seeing two important economic trends here:
books are being marketed like journals, and an endorsement of the
Big Deal approach. Inevitable?

Joe Esposito

On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 2:12 PM, Sandy Thatcher
<sandy.thatcher@alumni.princeton.edu> wrote:

> This is a giant step forward and much to be welcomed, along
> with Project Muse's similar effort, and both will go far toward
> closing the "digital divide" that has been growing between book
> and journal content in the online environment.
>
> That said, I have to wonder if we still won't end up with less
> than the ideal of full cross-searchability since, presumably,
> the platforms of the JSTOR and Muse projects will not be
> searchable together, but will be separate silos--which is why,
> in the end, I favor the move to full open access.
>
> Sandy Thatcher
>
>>January 11, 2011 - New York, NY - Five of the nation's leading
>>university presses - Chicago, Minnesota, North Carolina,
>>Princeton, and Yale - are at the forefront of a new effort to
>>publish scholarly books online as part of the non-profit
>>service JSTOR. Their books, representing ground-breaking
>>scholarship across the humanistic, social, and scientific
>>disciplines, are expected to be available in 2012.
>>
>>"Books at JSTOR" will make front and back list titles available
>>to libraries around the world in flexible ways that encourage
>>purchase, adoption, and use. This new initiative is the result
>>of a year-long investigation into the needs of the publishing,
>>library, and scholarly communities. Consultations with dozens
>>of libraries, end-users, and project partners helped to
>>identify elements of a solution that include overcoming
>>limitations on use and offering flexible purchase models for
>>libraries, while developing a sustainable model for publishers
>>for whom online book publishing must migrate quickly from being
>>ancillary to a fundamental part of their business. Among the
>>instrumental collaborators in this project were several presses
>>beyond those announced here, including California, Harvard, and
>>MIT.
>>
>>It is, however, authors and scholars that factor most
>>prominently in this new effort. Press partners are being
>>encouraged to join based on the quality of their publishing and
>>the relevancy of their lists to material already part of JSTOR
>>to improve both visibility of authors' work and ease of use for
>>scholars. The books will be deeply integrated with the 1,600
>>current and archival journals on JSTOR, as well as the diverse
>>primary sources available today. All the content will be
>>cross-searchable, and the books will be linked with the more
>>than 2 million book reviews and hundreds of thousands of books
>>references in the journal literature. Works written by the same
>>authors or focused on the same topics, regardless of format,
>>will be connected, and alerting services for users will cross
>>publishers, other content providers, and content formats.
>>
>>Greater than the Sum of the Parts
>>
>>"'Books at JSTOR' is terrific shorthand, but it doesn't tell
>>the whole story," said Michael Spinella, JSTOR Managing
>>Director. "This is really the next step in a series of efforts
>>to integrate scholarship across formats and media and to
>>establish a platform where librarians, publishers, authors, and
>>users can innovate in the future."
>>
>>"We are investing in something with others in our community,"
>>explained Garrett Kiely, Director of The University of Chicago
>>Press which will be adding its books to its complete journal
>>archives and current issues already on JSTOR. "Publishing
>>digital scholarship that includes long- and short-form
>>arguments, supported by multi-media, and usefully integrated
>>with other content is where we need to go to help authors and
>>researchers do their very best work in the future."
>>
>>Matching scholarly research and teaching interests with
>>impactful, relevant books for users is also a significant
>>focus. While books are already highly discoverable through
>>Google and Amazon, this is about academic books set in an
>>academic context that should be valuable specifically for
>>research and teaching, whether a faculty member is at an
>>institution in Nebraska or Nepal. Faculty and students at
>>nearly 7,000 institutions and libraries around the world
>>already have access to and use JSTOR, and will now have the
>>opportunity to conveniently read and reference books online
>>directly relevant to their work.
>>
>>"For a publisher like Princeton," noted Peter Dougherty,
>>Director of Princeton University Press, "Having our titles
>>cross-searchable with JSTOR's well-established journal
>>collections will provide us with another valuable means of
>>making our books available in research and other libraries
>>around the world."
>>
>>Promise for Digital Scholarship
>>
>>Longer term, there are exciting possibilities for scholarship
>>as authors embrace technology and the capabilities of the
>>platform. This month as part of the Current Scholarship Program
>>at JSTOR, humanistic scholars are seeing the potential for
>>publishing more compelling and effective work through the
>>integration of text with other media. The Journal of the
>>Society of Architectural Historians, under the catalytic
>>leadership of editors Hilary Ballon and David Brownlee and the
>>stewardship of the University of California Press, has begun
>>publishing papers where images, video, and GIS technologies are
>>integral to the text, enabling readers to engage in new ways
>>and better understand their arguments. The society has also
>>mounted a campaign to encourage submissions of this kind and is
>>working with other societies in the arts to do the same.
>>
>>"Scholars amass remarkable materials and create valuable
>>resources in the course of their research, much of which cannot
>>be incorporated into the physical or argumentative form of the
>>book," expressed Doug Armato, Director of The University of
>>Minnesota Press. "This project holds the promise of widely
>>sharing and preserving some of those materials and linking them
>>within a broader context, creating in the process an ebook
>>environment that can take advantage of the kinds of exciting
>>tools and scholarly practices emerging from the digital
>>humanities."
>>
>>This opportunity to utilize a variety of media is particularly
>>appealing to publishers like Yale University Press given their
>>substantial focus in the arts as well as the humanities and
>>social sciences. "Being part of this collaboration will enable
>>us to reach the scholarly community in needed ways and
>>contribute to the building of a valuable environment for
>>libraries and users. But just as exciting may be the
>>opportunity to create a new ecosystem for publishing in the
>>arts through the collaboration of many like-minded
>>organizations, including the potential for overcoming difficult
>>rights and technological issues in the future," said John
>>Donatich, Director of Yale University Press.
>>
>>Preservation Assurance
>>
>>Longevity and stability, particularly with new media, is also
>>an important focus of the initiative. "Authors, users, and
>>librarians need to know these books and related work will be
>>available over the very long term," said Kevin Guthrie,
>>President of ITHAKA, the organization that is home to JSTOR and
>>to the digital preservation service, Portico. "Preservation is
>>fundamental to our mission and a critical part of what we have
>>worked with the scholarly community to achieve since 1995." All
>>of the books will be preserved in Portico, which already
>>archives more than 66,000 e-books as well as journals and
>>digitized historical collections.
>>
>>Given the scope of Books at JSTOR, it will be open to all kinds
>>of publishers, whether non-profit or commercial, so long as
>>they share the vision, collaborative spirit, and values of the
>>group. We anticipate others will join soon. Conversations with
>>California, Harvard, and MIT are ongoing, as are discussions
>>with others. Libraries are also expected to be invited to
>>contribute books from their collections in the future.
>>
>>Kate Torrey, Director of The University of North Carolina Press
>>summarized: "This is a really exciting collaboration. Following
>>extensive research and planning, we now look forward to a
>>launch that brings together distinguished book and journal
>>content and establishes what we believe will be the
>>gold-standard. It's been a long time coming but with Books at
>>JSTOR, we can finally see the reality of scholarly books coming
>>of digital age."
>>
>>***