Informal Essay
For my first step into the abyss of this search for information
pertinent to the assigned topic "The Role of the Publisher in Knowledge
Diffusion: Past, Present, and Future", I went to my friendly, local Denver
Public Library branch and used the on-line public access catalog.
My first search involved using the words "publishers and publishing"
and resulted in one hit on a book from the 1940's called Publishers on
Publishing. I ordered the book from the Central Library hoping that it
might give me clues on how to narrow the topic. On that same trip to the
library, I attempted a search of "publishers and diffusion" and received no
results. I stopped the search at this point thinking that I had to find new
words to use, but I was unable at that time to come up with alternatives
(I can't say why I did not try other combinations of words such as,
"publishers or diffusion", at that time, but I was new at this game and
easily discouraged, loath as I am to admit that).
While I was waiting for the erstwhile volume on publishing to be
delivered, I went home and tried some searches on the Internet.
Something possessed me to try looking on the ERIC Database using
keywords of "publishing" and "diffusion" singly and in tandem, but found no
information that was useful in narrowing my topic in any way I found
interesting.
By this time the Publishers on Publishing volume had arrived, and it
turned out to be a dismally dead end.
I was feeling a tad desperate by now and decided to ask around at
work to see if anyone had any constructive ideas on how to start a search
that might prove to be productive. The talking tactic worked. Someone
had the bright idea to use the keywords of "scientific communication".
Now these did not turn out to be the magic words I needed, but they did
start me in a direction that looked promising.
On a trip to the Auraria Library, I used the words "scientific
communication" and ended up with 32 hits. Of those 32, I was able to
identify 17 that looked promising and were available. So I trudged into
the stacks and started browsing not only the books I had listed from the
on-line search, but also the books that were within close proximity to
those 17 in the stacks. There were many of these 17 that proved to be
useless as soon as I perused the tables of contents and/or the indices.
But, it was in one of the propinquitous browsings that I hit pay dirt, so to
speak. There on the shelf were books, and I do mean plural, on university
presses. I grabbed the most promising of these and added them to my
collection of interesting looking books concerned with "scientific
communication". I spent the next three hours winnowing out the sources
and contemplating narrowing the topic to a vertical examination of the
university press and the diffusion of knowledge. I took notes on some
books and checked out the 5 most promising tomes ( my limit at Auraria)
and headed home. I was cautiously optimistic.
I spent the next several nights going over the books I had brought
home from the Auraria Library. I used the books to review the viability of
the topic and once I had decided that the study of university presses would
work as a topic, I used the books to make lists of more sources to
investigate. The volume by Paul Parsons contained the extensive
bibliography and it was this volume that proved to be the most useful in
expanding the scope of my search for materials at this point in time.
From a home connection through my Internet Service Provider, I
found myself checking once again the Auraria OPAC, the Denver Public
Library OPAC, and then I expanded my searches to the University of Denver
OPAC. I had started a reiterative search process, using the same search
keywords in different OPACs, and changing the keywords to "scholarly
communications" to see if I would come up with different results. I was
getting a little smarter about looking at the on-line catalog for auxiliary
categories such as "university press." This was definitely a process of
evaluation and reevaluation.
While looking for more information from different sources, I started
a new series of searches on the Internet. I was specifically looking for
sources of information on individual university presses. Most of my early
searches brought up commercial information that was not useful.
Somehow I ended up on one home page that led me to the American
Association of University Presses' home page. I don't know why it took me
so long to get to this home page, but I think that I must have been using
the wrong search engines. I would have thought a search on "University
Presses" would have gotten me to this page sooner and right away rather
than later and circuitously. It was from this point that I was able to pick
up links that proved useful in providing additional sources, many of which
I did not find in traditional "print".
I finally made it over to Denver University (physically), and found a
wealth of information that related to "university presses" and "scholarly
communication". These two searches had proved to be the most helpful at
Denver PubIic Library and on further searches on the Internet.
It should have come as no surprise that given the topic under
consideration, the academic libraries I was able to use proved to be better
sources for material than the Denver Public Library, but I was able to
access information from Denver Public that I was unable to find in either
academic library. Just another lesson learned that proves that
information can be obtained from unlikely sources.
I was not able to find abstracts of the books I used, and I found that
the abstracts I could access on the journal articles were not always
helpful in deciding which articles would provide information useful to
this bibliography. I found very few reviews of my sources, but I did look
for the reviews in the Magazine Index of the Denver Public Library and on
the Internet.
I decided to end my search for information on the topic of university
presses and the diffusion of knowledge when I started finding more and
more redundant material. Some of the redundancy came in the form of
different authors citing the same works/authors. Some of the redundancy
came in the form of similar ideas being expressed.
While I was reading/annotating, I realized just how closely this
topic fit into much of the coursework from LI 801 and LI 803 ,
particularly the discussions of paradigm shifts, the Academic Model for
the Creation, Diffusion and Utilization of Knowledge, the rise of
technology, and the Information Transfer Cycle. Thus, this bibliography is
aimed at the members of this cohort of masters students in CO4 while
still attempting to provide a broad spectrum of information relating how
university presses operate and diffuse knowledge*.
What lessons did I learn from this search for material? Well, I
certainly learned the value of patience while searching, the value of
creative approaches to search terms, and the need for reiterative
searches. I did not go into this project expecting it to be easy, but I
underestimated the amount of time that would be needed and the amount
of effort it would take to put an annotated bibliography together.
*An explanation of the structure of the bibliography is provided on the
next page.
Bibliography
This bibliography is divided into 3 categories of information and is
followed by a list of on-line sites that may prove useful in further
investigations. The three categories I have used for separation of the
material relate to the title of the topic and are: Past , Present and
Present/Future. All entries contain author, title publishing information,
and a brief explanation of the nature of the cited work, but the remainder
of the information in the annotation varies depending on the nature of the
work; I tie the cited works to the "theories" explained in courses of the
SLIM program whenever possible.
The "Past" category is composed of works that predate 1977 due to
an arbitrary cut off on my part that is based on the emergence of new
technologies at around this point and the fact that writings of this period
reflected a different operating paradigm for university presses that were
still expanding in number and increasing the scope of their publishings.
Prior to the late 1970's little attention was paid to markets, and, other
than concern over the increased availability of photocopied material,
there was little concern over copyright; the industry that had begun in the
1880's was still showing signs of health, prosperity and expansion.
The "Present" section is devoted to items that describe changes to
the "old order" of expansion at university presses, that talk about the
specialization of presses, and that concentrate on the changes that are the
result of the onset of new technologies such as faxes, electronic
publishing, and the networking of computers.
The ambiguity of the last category, "Present/Future" is intentional
because so much of what is written about the future is tied to the present.
It follows the saying, "I have seen the future and the future is now." Many
of the citations in this 3rd section are placed here, not because they
necessarily hypothesize about the future, but because they wrestle with
the future by analyzing the present state of affairs in the world of
university presses.
I have placed a section of on-line sites at the end of the
"Present/Future" section that lists several home pages on the Internet
that can be used for supplemental information on university presses and
the diffusion of knowledge. Some sites are sponsored by the American
Association of University Presses, others by individual university
presses, and still others by commercial enterprises that deal with
university press publications. Any can be used as a jumping off point for
further investigations.
All of the citations in each of the 4 sections are listed
alphabetically for ease of access. I have used an asterick (*) in front of
some of the cited works to denote those that I feel were most helpful in
providing understanding of the topic in all of its ramifications.
Past
Challinor, David. "Smithsonian Communications: Transfer of Research
Information." Communication of Scientific Information. Ed. Stacey B. Day.
New York: S Karger, 1975. 136-139.
This is the only entry in the above cited book that addresses a
publishing house that can be classified as a university press. This article
is a good, and brief, analysis of the history of the Smithsonian Press. Not
only is the founding of the press detailed, but also the growth of the press
and the changes that indicate the ways in which the Smithsonian Press
has expanded on the original scope of the press from an internal organ that
printed its own reports and research articles to a publisher that now
includes books and recordings that are of interest to the general public,
scientists and scholars. The author also details the ways in which the
Smithsonian , as early as 1974, was looking for ways to make one arm of
its publishing activities, the Smithsonian Science Information Exchange
(SSIE), available on line. This is a short article loaded with information
that includes the not so distant past. The author was a member of the
staff of the Smithsonian at the time of the writing. No bibliography or
index, but this entry is included here because of its analysis of the
creation, production and diffusion of knowledge through one institution's
press.
*Fruge, August. A Skeptic Among Scholars: August Fruge on University
Publishing. University of California Press, 1993.
The author of this book was employed by the University of California
Press from 1944 until his retirement in 1976. He served as the director
of the press for many of those years and he held the title of Director
Emeritus at the time this book was published. This is his personal
memoir, and Fruge claims that it is an unscholarly book about scholarly
authors and publishing. The title refers to the fact that Fruge saw
himself as a skeptic who admired the books of scholars, who did battle
with some authors while encouraging others, and who had to ward off both
bankruptcy and meddling university officers in his role as director. This
is definitely an insider's view of university press publishing during an age
of expansion, and the style of writing makes this a book that is hard to put
down; it is filled with both information and insights into the politics and
personalities that characterized Fruge's association with this press. Many
of the chapters concern themselves with the publications of particular
books during Fruge's tenure (i.e. Ishi) and provide useful insights into
publishing practices and procedures. I have included this volume in this
bibliography for its in depth look at one university press from a director's
perspective. It provides a look at the diffusion of knowledge from inside a
publishing house and gives a vertical view of the procedures neede to get a
scholarly work published. Of course, the process of publishing, as seen in
this book, will reflect both some technologies no longer used and some
procedures that belong a different paradigm than the one in operation
today. This volume contains a table of contents, a detailed index, and
many photographs. There is no bibliography as such, but footnotes do
provide citations.
Fruge, August. The Metamorphosis of the University of California Press.
Associates of the University of California Press Publication, vol. 1, 1986.
This 24 page booklet details the events in the early life of the
University of California Press, and follows its transformation from a
printer of monographs to a publisher of scholarly books. Fruge's style is
just as readable in this booklet as it was in the above mentioned work.
This work was intended to be a precursor to a longer work (Skeptic Among
Scholars was published later than this work, but is not the end product he
describes here), and owes its origins to a lecture on the "Classical Origins
of the University of California Press". The work gives a concise
description of the roots of this American University Press in the passive
German model, and details the factors that led to its "metamorphosis" into
a press that followed the British "Oxbridge" model . There is no table of
contents and no index, but given the length of this work, neither is greatly
missed. I have included this work for the purpose of perspective; the
"metamorphosis" described here illustrates a situation where one
paradigm is replaced by a new, emergent paradigm, and while situations
have changed, many of today's discussions on the future of university
presses center around putting that emergent, now dominant, paradigm
aside in favor of another emergent paradigm.
*Hawes, Gene R. To Advance Knowledge- A Handbook of American
University Press Publishing. New York: American University Press
Services, Inc. 1967.
The author wrote this volume for those involved in scholarly
publication at university presses and while the age of this book dates
much of its content, it is still useful as a history of the university press
up to the date of this publication. I found this book referenced in other
sources, and Beth Luey (see Handbook for Academic Authors in the
"Present" section),comments that though this book was written in a period
of university press expansion and optimism, it makes still valid points
regarding the purpose and the workings of university presses. The
overview in Chapter 1 and the history of the evolution of university
presses in Chapter 2 give information that is superior to the Parsons' book
that is annotated in the "Present" section of this bibliography. This book
also provides a strong explanation of the difference between US and
British university presses. A comparison of the information in this book
and the Parsons' book indicates how much the industry has changed and
how much it has stayed the same in the 20 years between the 2 works, and
such a comparison provides an interesting perspective on different
operating paradigms. Hawes, at the time of this publication, was a
consultant to Columbia University Press, and the author of the forward,
Chester Kerr of the Yale University Press, called Hawes a "qualified and
perceptive participant and observer" of the industry, so the work would
appear to be valid. I found a memorable quote in this work that is
attributed to Nicholas Murray Butler in his 1917-1918 report as Columbia
University President ( he was also President of the Columbia University
Press) who said, "A university has three functions to perform; it is to
conserve knowledge; to advance knowledge; and to disseminate knowledge.
It falls short of the full realization of its aim unless, having provided for
the conservation and achievement of knowledge, it makes no provision for
the dissemination as well." This quote is a good indicator of the passivity
of the old paradigm of university presses; life was simpler then and you
printed what you thought was scholarly with few concerns for the market
you were reaching. A strong index is part of this work. The bibliography
is dated, but indicative of a well researched work.
Kefauver, Weldon A. Scholars and their Publishers. New York: The Modern
Language Association of America., 1977.
This book contains 3 papers and 3 transcripts from workshops that
were presented during the 91st Annual Convention of the Modern Language
Association. The book is included here in the Past Section because it
examines the relationship between a scholar and his publisher at a time
when changes in technology referred to the advances in the photocopier
and a new process for typesetting. All of the contributors to the book
were, at the time of the convention, associated with university presses.
The papers attempt to identify and confront the attitude that faults the
scholarly publisher both for refusing to publish the more specialized book
of limited market and for charging too much when he does publish it.
Issues of economics , technology, and scholarly standards are covered. A
picture of the mechanics of university press publishing emerges from the
compilation of the entries. While this book dates to a time that I consider
"past" due to the absence of certain technologies and the more passive
characteristics of the dominant paradigm, it is interesting to note that
the concerns and issues are not that different than they are today. There
is no index, and the table of contents is minimal, but adequate. The end of
the book includes a list of the contributors that includes their university
press affiliations.
Present
Burstyn, Joan M, ed. Desktop Publishing in the University. Syracuse, NY:
Syracuse University Press. 1991.
Many of the papers in this book were presented at the conference
"The Impact of Desktop Publishing on University Life", March 1989; while
other works in this volume were contributed by authors not at that
conference. Although the issues presented in this book are dated by 7
years, they still affect the future of publishing. The editor says that the
purpose of this book is not to serve as a "how to", but as a discussion
about the ethical, economic and structural implications of desktop
publishing for higher education and scholarly communication. The
introduction details the difference between publishing and printing and
discusses the aspects of archiving and peer reviews in academic
publishing. The index of this work is scanty and the table of contents is
not much help in deciding which articles to read for what information, but
several of the entries are worth a look. Oakman's entry questions the
quality of what is produced from a desktop publisher, and sees the rise in
expert systems as a necessity for the critical review of the content of
desktop published works (Oakman is a Professor of Computer Science at
the University of South Carolina). Silverman, a Professor of Education at
Ohio State University and an editor of the Journal of Higher Education, is
worth a look if only for examining the context of this quote, "The old order
changeth, perhaps, but the new technologies need old style publishing
values to prevent a chaos of babble". Two other entries are also worth a
glance: in the first, Jan Grycz Czeslaw of the University of California
Scholarship and Technology Project foresees a conundrum in the probable
lessening of concern for accuracy, verification and objectivity in
scholarly publications at the same time that scholarly publication gains
prestige due to the presence of "self published" material that will lend
credibility and legitimacy to the authors of the self published works (talk
about a Catch 22); and secondly, Charles L Creesy from the Princeton
University Press thinks the challenge in a era of desktop publishing will
come in the form of matching tools to jobs for cost cutting rather than
cutting the rigors of the university press acquisition and review
processes. Just this short synopsis shows that there is little agreement
about the impact of desktop publishing on the publishing industry. The
present is certainly in the middle of its own shifting paradigm, and this
book should remind the reader of LI803 and the need to hold conferences
where "dialogs" and ideas can emerge to give shape to concerns and to plot
a path for the future.
*Fisher, Janet H. "Copyright: The Glue of the System."
http:/www.press.umich.edu/jep/works/fisher.copyright.htm.
This article is included in this bibliography because it focuses on
the copyright issue from the point of view of a university press. The
author was an associate director at The MIT Press at the time the article
was written. Given that the current copyright model favors the publisher,
one might expect the author to advocate continuing with the status quo
with regard to copyright, and she does. To be fair to Fisher though, she
examines copyright ownership from different models, the present one that
favors publishers, one that would favor authors, and one that would give
copyright of scholarly works to the institution that employs the author.
She still finds the current model the best. What Fisher eventually
proposes, because she knows that there is little likelihood that copyright
law will not be changed at some point, is a compromise that keeps
copyright primarily with the publisher, but allows authors and author's
institutions more flexibility in use and reproduction of the work.
Certainly, this is an article written by an insider, looking to justify
current practices. Since it appears that it will be impossible to protect
the current form of copyright in its entirety, Fisher is trying to limit the
damages that a change in the system might cause. The article has merit
because it speaks with a moderate voice and does seem willing to accept
compromise on some issues to retain what the author feels is the true
essence of the current copyright laws in terms of a university press... the
dissemination of knowledge that has been given "value" by its very
association with the press. This article reminds me, once again, of issues
discussed in LI 803 in relation to the changes inherent in new
technologies and the need for dialog, compromise and sharing of resources
to reach the common goal of knowledge diffusion. No features are
provided.
Heller, Scott. "Flare Up Over Jung." The Chronicle of Higher Education.
XVI, 40 (11 June 1995): A10+.
This article tells of a dispute between an author of a book on Jung,
the Princeton University Press and Jung's estate. The reason for the flare
up is simple: the book is critical of Jung, Princeton has accepted the
manuscript for publishing and the estate of Carl Jung takes exception.
Why should that matter to Princeton University Press? Read the article to
reach your own conclusions. Is Princeton bowing to pressure that may
threaten it financially? What right does the estate of Carl Jung have to
protest the release of this work? Is the author blameless in this
situation? Besides the fun you can have reading about all the shadow
boxing and posturing, this article sheds light on a side of university
presses not often seen in my research, the politics and maneuvering that
extend beyond the inner offices of a press. Nothing like a little
mudslinging to liven up the research! The author is a on staff at the
Chronicle of Higher Education. No features provided.
Horowitz, Irving Louis. Communicating Ideas: The Politics of Scholarly
Publishing. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 1991.
This volume appears to be an update to Horowitz's 1986 volume
Communicating Ideas: The Crisis of Publishing in a Post Industrial
Society, published by Oxford University Press. The current publisher,
Transaction Publishers, is Horowitz's own publishing house. The fact that
Horowitz is his own publisher for the newer work might suggest a "vanity"
publication the second time around, but given the fact that the titles of
most of the chapters in the second book parallel the chapters in the first
book, I have concluded that the 1991 edition is a reworking of the 1986
book. This book is included because it addresses the political world of
scholarly publishing and while it examines commercial publishing in great
detail, it also provides contrasts to university presses. You will have to
dig to find Horowitz's views of university presses as told from an
outsider's view point because the index is of little help in finding mention
of university presses. I ended up using the footnotes to uncover
discussions relating to university presses on the technological impacts on
scholarly publishing (Chapter 3), the gatekeeping functions of publishers
(Chapter 13), the social structure of scholarly communications (Chapter
14), and the changing system of author/publisher relations (Chapter 17).
If you are interested in comparing university presses to commercial
houses, this is a good source and worth the effort of uncovering the
information. The "bigger" issues this book addresses include the social
backdrop of scholarly publishing and the global politics of publishing.
This would be a good work to tie into the global information
infrastructure discussions of LI803.
Matkins, Ralph E. and T.F. Rigger. Persist and Publish- Helpful Hints for
Academic Writing and Publishing. Niwot, CO: University Press of
Colorado. 1991.
This book is written from the point of view of an academic seeking
publication, and contains 2 chapters particularly useful in understanding
the workings of university presses; this work is included in this
bibliography for this perspective. Chapter 6, "Creating Foothills from
Mole Hills: Writing Journal Articles" offers help for writers seeking to
publish in journals, but succeeds in providing information about journals
including why they operate, the editorial process in journal publishing,
and the review process; this chapter also contains useful diagrams and
examples. Chapter 8, "Scaling the Summit: Your First Book", can be used
to find information describing the difference between a commercial
publisher and a university press. The titles of these two chapters
certainly indicate a cordilleran theme to the book, and while the writing
style is light, the quality of the information is not. I had no book jacket
available for information about the authors, but hopefully the fact that
the publisher is a university press indicates a strong degree of reliability.
McMillen, Liz. "Shaking up a University Press." The Chronicle of Higher
Education. XVII, 10 (3 November 1995): A12+.
Niko Pfund is the editor in chief at New York University Press. He is
the one doing the "shaking" referred to in the title. Pfund is turning away
from traditional texts and actively seeking or commissioning works that
cover topics that are trendy and current. Pfund breaks from tradition in
another way by ignoring the review committee process for many works
that are eventually published. Pfund defends his tactics primarily with
his successful track record, but his actions have raised questions
regarding the scholarly level of his list. This article is important in its
view of a "renegade" university press and the issues it raises regarding
the role of a university press in the diffusion of knowledge. This article
puts me in mind of the diagram of Kuhn's paradigm shift; Pfund can be
viewed as an anomaly in the existing paradigm, but if enough other
presses follow his lead, his practices may become a factor in an emerging
paradigm.
McMillen, Liz. "The Racial Divide at University Presses." The Chronicle of
Higher Education. XVII, 17 (5 January 1996)G: A8.
This article examines the ethnic background of the work force at
university presses and finds few minority editors in the world of
academic publishing. The article goes on to discuss the possible reasons
for the dirth of minority editors as well as the low percentage of minority
workers as a whole in the industry. This article is included in this
bibliography because it is the only one I could find that examines the
people who make up the staffs at university presses. True, the story is
told here only from the perspective of minorities, but the article gives
insight into the degree status of editors as well as the salary levels at
university presses. The consensus is that you don't take a job with a
university press for the money, but rather for the intellectual and cultural
rewards. No bibliography is provided.
*O'Grady, Richard T. "How Publishers Can Help Recycle Knowledge."
Scholarly Publishing. April 1992: 194-197.
This article describes two ways that books that have been
superseded by newer editions can still be "used". The author of this
article, through his affiliation with Johns Hopkins Press, has been
involved in 2 programs that recycle books (both new and previously owned)
through donations to not-for-profit organizations that function as
clearing houses for the receipt and shipment of books around the world.
Through these programs, university presses can put unsold, but still
viable, volumes to good use, and people who would otherwise not have
access to this information are able to benefit. The author sees this
practice as truly accomplishing the university press's goal of
dissemination of knowledge. This article is included because it illustrates
a practice of dissemination by university presses that does not involve
economic overtones. After all the readings that dwell on the need for
university presses to make profits or find new ways of funding, this is a
refreshing and reassuring view of the industry. This article provides a
new model for avoiding the destruction of still viable books.
*One Book/Five Ways: The Publishing Procedures of 5 University Presses.
Chicago: University ofChicago Press, 1994
This is an unusual book. It documents the creation of one manuscript into
a book by five different university presses. First published in 1977, it
was reissued in 1994 because as Joyce Kachergis, at the time of the
University of North Carolina Press, points out in the forward, though much
has changed technologically during this time, the procedures publishers
follow are the same. Kachergis goes on to clarify that there has been no
change in either the thinking or the basic sequence of events behind the
publishing of a book in the nearly 20 years between publications. The
reader is permitted to examine notes, editor's comments, the entire
project log of each press including the mock covers. Even though each
press uses similar operating principles, in the end, each publisher decides
on a different "book". For those of us with no publishing background, it is
a eye-opening glimpse of what is involved in the creation of a book once a
press gets hold of, and decides to publish, a manuscript. A fun volume
that can be browsed and skipped around without fear (along the lines of
Richard Saul Wurman's book , Information Anxiety. New York: Bantam
Books. 1990, from LI802), because you will learn with each page
regardless of the order viewed.
Page, Gillian, Robert Campbell, and Jack Meadows. Journal Publishing-
Principles and Practice. N.p.: Butterworth. 1987.
This book is written for people involved in journal publishing whose
experience with publishing is limited and it offers a description of the
business in relation to the economic and technological issues at
university presses. Chapter 1- Introduction to Journals provides
background information on the audience and the authors of journal
articles. Chapter 11- Alternatives to Trade Journals gives information
regarding other publishing channels. Appendix 2, a listing of associations
of editors and publishers is useful as a starting point for obtaining more
information on editors and publishers of learned journals, but the
information must be somewhat dated especially since the information
provided predates URL (universal resource locator) addresses. I
particularly like a quote by Daniel Coit Gilman, the 1st president of Johns
Hopkins University, that introduces the book: "It is one of the noblest
duties of a university to advance knowledge, and to diffuse it not merely
among those who can attend daily lectures- but far and wide." This book
examines the creation, production, dissemination and diffusion of the
Information Transfer Cycle as it relates to scholarly journals.
*Parsons, Paul. Getting Published: The Acquisition Process at University
Presses. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1989.
This book was originally chosen in an effort to narrow the scope of
the assigned bibliography topic and serves as one of the centerpiece works
of this bibliography. Parsons is a Ph.D. in Mass Communications and this
work about the acquisition process at university presses is a wonderful
explanation of the present world of university presses. Although centered
around the acquisition process at a university press, the book provides
information that includes a history of university presses and an
explanation of the review process. The book is useful for more than the
information in the body of the book; the appendix on listbuilding helps
identify the strengths of individual presses ( and illuminates how even in
the practice of dissemination, diffusion can play a role by identifying the
target market even before publication); the bibliography is extensive and
gives good leads for further study; the tables are informative; and both
the table of contents and the index are detailed and useful. I could find no
outside biographical information to help qualify the credentials of the
author, but I hope that both his Ph.D. and the fact that this book was
published by a university press are encouraging signs. The author also
takes pains to explain his research methodologies in the introduction, and
this is another positive indication of the quality of the information in this
volume. While a review by Daniel Menaker in The New York Times Book
Review section ( 9/24/89, p. 44) found the book dull, heavily written and
intended for either those readers involved in university presses/academia
or new Ph.D. looking to "publish not perish", I found the writing style
accommodating and think it will prove useful for understanding the
general workings of university presses. The book also outlines how
university presses fight for existence in a publishing arena that strives
for dissemination and diffusion of knowledge but still must make
economic sense as a publishing (not just a printing) entity. This book is
an excellent source of information on the production, dissemination and
diffusion processes of a university press.
*Powell, Walter W. Getting into Print: The Decision Making Process in
Scholarly Publishing. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985.
This work is often cited by other authors included in this
bibliography. While this book is based on Powell's dissertation and
encompasses a much broader scope than university presses, Powell did
visit a "large" university press and interview the editors and director at
this press. He also attended university press industry meetings and
workshops, and read reports issued by the American Association of
University Presses. The book centers around 1, an analysis of how editors
in scholarly publishing houses decide which books to publish and 2, an
analysis of the relationship between society and economy in the
organization of publishing houses. The index is a good way to find
information pertinent to university presses. The book succeeds in
illustrating the difference between university presses and commercial
publishing houses. Powell was an Associate Professor at both MIT and
Yale at the time this book was published, and this, plus the number of
times this book has been cited in other works, suggests a high degree of
credibility. This book provides an analysis of the production phase of the
Information Transfer Cycle.
Present/Future
Arnold, Kenneth. "The Body in the Virtual Library: Rethinking Scholarly
Communication." http://www.press.umich.edu/jep/works/arnold.body.html.
This article looks at scholarly communication in terms of both the
sociology of knowledge as well as the changes that scholarly
communication is undergoing due to changes in technology. Arnold was at
one time the director of the Rutgers University Press , employed by the
Princeton University Press, and active in the AAUP; he is often quoted in
other sources. This article is part of a planned larger work and, as such,
contains a bibliography that can be used to track down other sources on
this subject; this feature is all the more surprising since few electronic
postings that I have come across contain a bibliography. Arnold sees the
electronic revolution as being about more than scholarly publishing; he
sees the emergence of a new social order that threatens the existence of
the traditional scholarly publisher as the result of the emergence of
electronic media. At the heart of the new social order is the issue of
copyright and who controls the revenue stream of the copyright. Arnold
agrees with Okerson (see entry in this section) that university presses
should hold copyrights to works they publish (especially if the work was
created by a faculty member of the parent institution). Arnold is
pessimistic about the survival of university presses if they continue to
operate in the old, and he doubts that university presses will have deep
enough pockets to finance successful moves into electronic publishing.
Arnold's vision of the future, while not well formed, involves the
reorganization of the university around the new patterns of scholarly
communication, retains the best aspects of the present system of the
dissemination of knowledge, and creates a partnership between scholars,
academic publishers and libraries. Anyone questioning the role of the
university press in the future (or present) will want to read this article.
The issues raised by this article are in line with those raised in LI803
regarding changing societal roles and shifting alliances that emerge due
to changing technologies. This article describes an industry, in the
throws of a crisis, looking for a solution that will allow university
presses a continued existence.
Baker, John F. "13 Ups in Networked Information Experiment on Their
Campuses." Publisher's Weekly. 7 February 1994: 20.
The American Association of University Presses and the Coalition
for Networked Information partnered to develop networked information
resources and to experiment with producing, distributing and utilizing
scholarly and scientific materials. Each participating university press
designed its own project. The projects, which will be used to define
future programs for scholarly access to information are outlined in this
article. While the article is 2 years old, I have run across some Internet
sites that are still continuing with their projects (namely Michigan's
which can be found at www.press.michigan.edu; see "Sites to Visit"
section). The future of university presses will include multimedia and
electronic access, and this article outlines the early stages of the effort
to embrace new technologies. This entry is included in the "Future"
section because it describes a work in progress. This article relates an
alternative to traditional book production, and then describes the
processes of dissemination, diffusion and utilization based on the "new"
product. No bibliography provided.
Bryant, Eric. "Reinventing the University Press." Library Journal. 1
September 1994: 147-149.
While looking at the world of the university press in the present,
this article examines routes for presses to follow into the future, if
indeed there is one for university presses. The author interprets the
world of a university press in terms of an ecology that is reliant on new
paradigm tenets, and attributes many of the problems now facing presses
to working under characteristics of an obsolete paradigm. Chaos theory
rears its ugly head as well. Issues raised include a partnership between
university presses and the world of scholarly communication, a revamping
of the "publish or perish" rule of tenure, and a development of a new
system for university presses based on views of disparate camps--
theorists and pragmatists. Theorists use the core mechanisms of
scholarly communication and consider changes that can be made to the
core elements to make the system work in the present, and pragmatists
attempt to use electronic models (i.e., on-line journals, document delivery
services) of the old system's core elements to adapt the system to the
present. Bryant was an Assistant Editor of Library Journal at the time
this article was published. No citations, no bibliography, but this article
is well presented and appears to be well researched. It certainly uses all
the right "buzz" words; both the subject matter and the publication are
geared to the library professional. No bibliography provided.
Day, Colin. "Economics of Electronic Publishing."
http://www.press.umich.edu/jep/works/colin.econ.html.
While this article professes to be concerned with economics, Colin
Day proves himself to be a believer in the new paradigm characteristics of
complexity, indeterminacy, and perspective. Day was, at the time of this
paper's presentation at the AAUP/ARL Symposium on Electronic Publishing
in November of 1993, Director of the University of Michigan Press. The
document itself is full of typographical and grammatical errors and that,
in and of itself, is a point made in favor of the publishers, who, like Lisa
Freeman (see entries in this section), claim that the traditional role of a
publisher, the layout and editing functions in particular, will still be
needed in the electronic world. Day describes the role of a publisher in
terms of an information intermediary who gathers works, selects
individual works from those gathered, enhances the original work, and
informs the public about the availability of the work (marketing). The
point that Day is trying to make is one seen in other works, especially
Arnold's paper at the start of this section, that a university press should
not be market driven, or at least not as market driven as presses have
become today. Information, Day acknowledges, is inexhaustible ( a point
made by the Cleveland Harlan article, "The Knowledge Dynamic". The
Knowledge Executive. N.p.:E.P. Dutton. 1985: 19-35, from the LI 801
reading packet) and is, therefore, in conflict with the basic tenet of a
market driven economy that prices items for their scarcity. Day looks to
new partnerships ( that 803 word again) for answers to the questions
raised by the conflicting need for accessible ( an LI803/804 word)
scholarly information and the need for publishing houses to look to a
bottom line that shows at least a break even point on each and every
published work. The fear that Day expresses is one that sees a future
where the only books/journals that are published are those that are
expected to show a profit. (Sounds like the path that New York University
Press is already on, see McMillen, Liz. "Shaking up a University Press."
The Chronicle of Higher Education. XVII, 10: A12+ in the "Present"
section). It is hard to balance the need to show a profit with the purpose
of knowledge diffusion; this can be related to the Fritz Machlup article
from LI 803 ("Uses, Values, and Benefits of Knowledge." Knowledge:
Creation, Diffusion, Utilization, 14, 4 (June 1993): 448-466). Small
bibliography provided.
DeLoughry, Thomas J. "University Presses Try to Ride the Wave of
Electronic Publishing." The Chronicle of Higher Education. 24 March
1993: A17+.
DeLoughry is on the staff of The Chronicle of Higher Education. As
the title suggests this article is mostly concerned with the products of
electronic publishing and electronic distribution of those. The economic
factors that favor electronic publishing are briefly discussed. Peer
review in electronic formats is viewed as viable and as a value added
factor that will encourage sales of electronic offerings from university
presses. The discussion of CD-ROMs includes praise for amount of
information that can be stored on a CD and realization that the CD format
opens doors to scholarship by putting sources, high quality graphics, and
multimedia in one CD that can be produced at a fraction of the cost of
traditional texts. Again, the elements of economic strategies play an
important role in this article. No bibliography, provided. Some of the
information is dated, but the points this article makes are still valid
economically and technically. I have included this article due to its
positive approach to the viability of the university press in an
increasingly electronic world.
*Freeman, Lisa. "Big Challenges Face University Presses in the Electronic
Age" in Point of View column. The Chronicle of Higher Education. 28
April 1993: A44.
The author of this article was Director of the University of
Minnesota Press and Chairman of the AAUP Electronic Publishing Caucus at
the time this article was published. She has been cited in many of the
works used in this bibliography. The author is optimistic about the future
of university presses even in the wake of new technologies, and thinks
that the role of the university press will not change significantly. Claims
that unmediated electronic publishing would accelerate communication of
ideas among scholars, the author argues, overlook the role that publishers
play in the present systems. The issue of copyright in relation to
traditional publishing and electronic publishing is nicely explained. The
author is an advocate for presenting works in formats best suited to the
subject; electronically for those that would most benefit from hypertext,
and traditionally for those meant to be read linearly. She does not see the
issue of electronic publishing as an either/or question, but she does
advocate that only publishers, not librarians or administrators, are
equipped to make that decision. The article is truly a justification of
university presses in a publishing world that is suffering change due to
new technologies. Although this article is a transparent justification of
the role of university presses in the electronic age, it makes convincing
arguments for the need for university presses in the continued diffusion
of knowledge. Freeman's optimism with regard to the future of the
university press is in direct conflict with Arnold's pessimism (see Arnold
article at the start of this section). The article is included because it
covers much of the Information Transfer Cycle as it relates to the
university press, because it describes an industry looking to redefine its
role within a shifting paradigm, and because it presents an optimistic
view of the future role of university presses. No bibliography.
*Freeman, Lisa. "Testimony prepared on behalf of the Association of
American University Presses for the National Information Infrastructure
Task Force Working Group on Intellectual Property." 18 November 1993.
http://www.pres.umich.edu/jep/works/freeman.nii.html.
Freeman addressed the NII Task Force on Intellectual Property both
as the director of University of Michigan Press and as chair of the AAUP
Electronic Caucus. In this electronic journal article, Freeman advocates
that copyright laws not be changed for electronic mediums since she
argues they adequately protect rights of both the creators (authors and
publishers) and consumers of scholarly work. The discussion goes on to
include issues of fair use, and its relationship to the publishing world, and
outlines consequences to either broadening or restricting fair use. Before
she gives her testimony on fair use, Freeman provides a succinct
explanation of the peer review system in relation to how it ensures the
quality of a scholarly work. The article also gives statistics regarding
size of the AAUP, the number of books and journals published in 1992, and
the relative size of the revenues generated by AAUP member presses. The
article provides many categories of information in relation to the
Information Transfer Cycle, but is included in this bibliography primarily
for the examination of copyright issue in terms of changing technologies.
Freeman's views concerning copyright are the opposite of those expressed
by D. Linda Garcia in "Copyright Law changes for Electronic Publishing"
from the reading packet for 803 [Proceedings of the 9th Annual Conference
of Research Library Directors. Dublin, OH: OCLC, 9 (1991): 1-6]. No
bibliography provided.
Gliver, Peter John. "Don't Kill the University Press Yet." Library Journal
120.3 (Feb. 1995): 134.
This concise article gives a defense of the university press against
attempts to change copyright practices as well as a defense against the
rise in the occurrence of electronic self-publication. The article is worth
reading if only for the explanation of the economic model of a university
press in a simple dollars and cents fashion. It is through this economic
model that Gliver makes his strongest case against a change in copyright
laws. Also worthwhile is Gliver's discussion of the value of scholarship.
Gliver is the current director at the University of Ohio Press, and a former
board member of the Association of American University Presses. He has
a vested interest in making sure university presses survive this assault
on its practices, and he makes very strong arguments justifying the future
position of university presses. The issue of the creation of knowledge in
relation to the issue of copyright is well presented in this article. No
bibliography provided.
*Hafrey, Leigh. "At Cyberspace University Press, Paperless Publishing
Looks Good." New York Times Book Review. 30 October 1994: 32+.
Somehow this article fits an expansive discussion of such broad
issues as publishing on the Internet, CD-ROM development by university
presses, the interdisciplinary trend in education and copyright into 3
pages. The discourse is specific and analytical. The author quotes many
who appear in this bibliography (Okerson, Freeman, Arnold). This is the
best discussion of CD-ROM publication by university presses that I have
found. Use this article as leads for the content of the electronic offerings
of the Internet sites for the MIT Press , the University of Minnesota Press,
the University of California Press, and the University of Chicago Press.
The article is a little dated in that it bemoans the absence of any on-line
billing capability, but it looks to the future in terms of how electronic
forms of publishing by university presses can help maintain the
dissemination/diffusion of unprofitable lines, such as monographs, and
speed up the processes of dissemination/diffusion with electronic
journals. A must read for a quick and dirty overview of the electronic
avenues being explored by university presses. No bibliography provided.
*Luey, Beth. Handbook for Academic Authors. New York: Cambridge
University Press, 1990.
This book is well described by its title; it truly is a handbook for
academics seeking to publish. Don't let the title discourage you from
using this book for other reasons, such as research. While the scope of the
book covers primarily commercial presses, Luey discusses the following
aspects of university presses: finances, home faculty, evaluation of
manuscripts, marketing, staffing, and textbooks published by them. All
attributes of this book are exceptional; the table of contents is
descriptive and useful; the notes at the end of the book are helpful; the
index is detailed. As helpful as these all were, the attribute I most
appreciated was the bibliography. This bibliography is the first I have
ever found that not only separates works into subsections such as "Basic
References", "Dissertations", and "Style Manuals", but also gives a one
sentence critical annotation of the cited work. The bibliography is a gold
mine of information in and of itself. Although I could find no biographical
information on Luey ( no book jacket either), she is listed on the front
piece as a faculty member at Arizona State University; this, and the
reputation of the publishing press would indicate that this is a sound
work.
Okerson, Ann, ed. Scholarly Publishing on Electronic Networks: Filling the
Pipeline and Paying the Piper, Proceedings of the 4th Symposium.
Washington, DC: Association of Research Libraries, Office of Scientific
and Academic Publishing, 1995.
In the introduction to this book comprised of papers presented at the
above conference, Jinnie Davis of the North Carolina State University
gives an overview of the proceedings and defines the papers in the volume
as being of value to anyone interested in electronic publishing be they
university press publishers, librarians or other academics. There is no
index to this work, and that makes finding pertinent information all the
harder given the ambiguous nature of many of the titles of the papers. I
did find one article in particular that was of help on the subject of the
role of university presses in the diffusion of knowledge, and that paper
was by none other than our friend Sandra Braman who is known in the
industry at large through her affiliation with the University of Illinois at
Champaign, and in CO4 for her role in the CD-ROM covering the "5th
Conference of Librarians in International Development 1995." Her paper in
this work covers the topic of "Scholarly Publishing in an Information
Economy" and the subsection of this paper entitled "Unbundling Scholarly
Publishing" is the most pertinent part of the paper for the subject at hand.
Other than the Braman paper, you may want to look at this volume if only
for 2 features at the end of the book. One feature lists the registrants at
the conference and even includes email addresses. The other feature of
interest is an Electronic Survey which lists university presses, among
others, with projects or plans for electronic publishing. The kind of
information provided in these entries includes the fact that the University
of California Press plans to have all of its 8 journals move from print to
electronic access only, and the fact that the University of Minnesota
Press's plans include taking out of print scholarly books and converting
them to electronic form. These two features are somewhat
unconventional, but they provide much information.
Okerson, Ann Shumelda and James J. O'Donnell eds. Scholarly Journals at
the Crossroads: A Subversive Proposal for Electronic Publishing, and
Internet Discussion about Scientific and Scholarly Journals and their
Future. Washington, DC: Office of Scientific and Academic
Publishing, Association of Research Libraries, 1995.
The "subversive proposal" of this volume's title refers to the
premise that scholarly authors, who do not plan to sell their works, should
make the works available on the Internet through publicly accessible
archives. This proposal is true to the ideal of freely exchanged scholarly
information, but could mean the end of academic journals and their
current peer review process. The introduction of this work is worth a
look for a discussion of the issues and the visions for electronic
publishing, but this is not a work that is specifically geared toward the
university press. More useful by far are the glossary and the "hyperlinks"
that substitute for an index and steer a learner/reader toward Internet
locations for useful material. A sample of a "hyperlink" includes the E-
Journal Directory at gopher://arl.cni.org:70/11/ scomm/edir. I did find
this site on my own by searching Alta Vista for an electronic journal
directory, but it would have saved me a great deal of time if I had used
this citation. I did find this work cited in the bibliographies of other
works (found on the Internet), but I found the main body of the volume less
helpful than its features. I did find a positive review of this work in the
12/95 Library Journal (120,20: 166).
Peek, Robin P. and Gregory B. Newby eds. Scholarly Publishing: The
Electronic Frontier. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996
This book houses a collection of papers by different authors that
cover issues related to electronic publishing as it may affect academics.
The paper that is most closely tied to university presses in the electronic
world is a paper by Lisa Freeman that closely parallels the article she
wrote for The Chronicle of Higher Education cited earlier in this section.
In the paper included in this volume, Freeman gives an overview of the
state of university presses today, the role of university presses in
electronic publishing, and her view of the Internet as only one of many
forces that have changed the face of university presses. Other papers in
this collection discuss the world of the university press in electronic
forums, and the index proves to be an excellent source of leads for this
information; yes, though this is a collection of papers, the editors have
provided an very useful index. Topics relating to university presses that
are covered in the index include the university press's standard of quality
in scholarly publishing, the networking of electronic journals by
university presses, how the shift by libraries to serials has affected
university presses, and a discussion of how the rate of publishing at
university presses is outstripping the acquisition rate at libraries. The
relationship of the university press to libraries is an important angle; one
that is not always covered by the literature on university presses
especially in literature about the past history of presses. This collection
of papers is a good source of information for people interested in the
future of publishing, libraries and research journals. Use this book to
relate the presses to varying degrees of changes in their operational
paradigms and the view of the need to partner with libraries ( forming
new alliances as discussed in LI803). I found a positive review of this
book by at http://www.anatomy.su.oz. au/danny/book-reviews/, but I have
no information as to the credibility or credentials of the reviewer, Danny
Yee.
*Shulevitz, Judith. "Keepers of the Tenure Track." New York Times Book
Review. 29 October 1995: 20-21.
Shulevitz investigates the contradiction found in the fact that
editors sign up books that they hope will sell and that professors write
books they hope will give them tenure. In an effort to get published, the
author claims that professors will write what they think will sell, not
necessarily what they think is a scholarly contribution to the knowledge
pool. According to Shulevitz, this places the consumer in the position of
the acquisitions committee at the university press. This article is good
for an analysis of the economic reality that drives university presses in
today's market. A discussion of journal articles versus books and the uses
of electronic publishing is also included. This author is pessimistic about
future of scholarly communication because university presses are so
bound by the need to make sales. This is a well written, interesting and
thought provoking article. This article provides an excellent example of a
practice, tenure decision, that is based on the workings of an old paradigm
that is being questioned for its validity in an emerging paradigm; because
this is a discussion in progress, this article is placed here rather in the
"Present" section.
Thatcher, Sanford G. "The Crisis in Scholarly Communication." The
Chronicle of Higher Education XVI, 25 (March 3, 1995): B1-B2.
Thatcher discusses the fate of the monograph in this article.
Besides the explanation of the failure of monographs to capture audiences,
Thatcher gives statistics to show the trends in scholarly readership,
library purchases and publishing costs. The article postulates some
solutions that may keep scholarly monographs in print including use of the
Internet. A model already in place to experiment with electronic
publishing of monographs by universities and university presses is
exemplified by the University of Chicago CIC-Net. This is an impassioned
plea to universities and university presses to join in an effort to discover
new ways to protect scholarly communication. Thatcher is the director at
the Pennsylvania State University Press. This article discusses the
practice of monograph publishing, which though it survived in the old
operational paradigm of university presses, may not survive in the
emerging paradigm without a reworking.
*Willis Ph.D., Jerry. "Bridging the Gap Between Traditional and Electronic
Scholarly Publishing."
http://www.coe.uh.edu/~brobin/Educom95/EducomJW/index.html.
This is the print version of a paper presented by the author at the
1995 EDUCOM Conference in Portland, OR. This lengthy paper can be
browsed by sections linked through the home page address. While I have
no biographical source for the author, he has prepared a paper with many
references that I have found mentioned in other sources. The good news
here is that the sources are usually linked to other web sites and this may
prove to be a successful way to find more information on electronic
journal publishing. The paper reviews the history of journals and
discusses economic models of scholarly publishing in the traditional paper
world. The paper also compares that economic model from a paper world
to an economic model for electronic publishing on the web. Issues
pertaining to the need for "traditional" publishers in a paperless
environment, be they either commercial or university presses, are
presented. Predictions about the future and the decisions the author
thinks will be necessary to make are also included. While the author is
clearly from the ranks of the commercial publisher, he does a good job of
drawing university presses into his arguments. The article is quick to
point out several ways in which journal publishing, with the proliferation
of electronic publishing, is entering a new operational paradigm. It is
refreshing to see the hypertext links to cited works and these will most
likely prove useful in future searches into the subject of electronic
journals. I have included this article not only for the topics it covers, but
also for the "linking" to sources it provides; this is a good example of an
electronic publication that has taken advantage of the medium's
flexibility.
Sites to Visit
( provided as places to start an investigation of pertinent material)
gopher://arl.cin.org:70/11/scimm/edir/edir.95.
This web site contains links to the "1995 Directory of Electronic
Journals and Newsletters", published by the Association of Research
Libraries. The introduction to this edition, a listing of sites that help you
use the electronic version of the "Directory", and a searchable index are
all presented in hyper text mark-up language (html). Beware, however,
because the searchable index gives links to gopher sites with generic
descriptions and the only way to tell what sites your search has brought
up is to visit the sites blindly. Once you find a site you want, however,
you can get pertinent information and instructions for subscribing. This
is not the most efficient site, but it is the only one I found that really
lets you see what journals are available electronically.
http://aaup.pupress.princeton.edu
This is the home page of the American Association of University
Presses. The home page gives options that let you connect to press
catalogs, member press addresses, other on-line projects by member
presses, and much more.
http://aaup.pupress.princeton.edu:70/0/central/members/html
This site lets you make links to the home pages of member presses.
http://aaup.pupress.princeton.edu:70/1/journals
This site houses the combined American Association of University
Presses Journal Catalogs. The catalog can be searched by subject, title,
or press.
http://muse.jhu.edu
This is the home page of Johns Hopkins University Press's electronic
publishing arm. This university press expects to have 40 of the 43
journals it publishes available on-line. Site provides information on
subscription and copyright responsibilities inherent with electronic
delivery. The value added aspect of this electronic publishing is the fact
that the electronic journal issues will be available before the print
versions.
http://users.aimnet.com/~upb/
This site is the home page for the University Press Bookstore in
Berkeley. The store stocks and sells books of some 100 university
presses, or so they say. They have 20,000 books in inventory, or so they
claim. There is an on-line mailing list form that will give you notices of
titles specific to your field of interest.
http://www.edoc.com/ejournal
This is a commercial site for the Web Information List Maintenance
Agent. I don't know how the site decides which journals will be accessed
for searches, but searches are performed based on search categories such
as "Academic and Reviewed Journals". I played around on this site for
many hours and found only limited success; a case of having to separate
the chaff from the wheat.
http://www/press.umich.edu:80/jep/
This is the home page of the University of Michigan Press Journal of
Electronic Publishing and the site provides an electronic archive of works
believed to be thoughtful and provocative as well as reflective of current
issues and trends in electronic publishing. This site also explains the
permissible fair use parameters associated with electronic publishing.
This site provided an excellent source of information for this
bibliography.
Jo Norris
LI 804 Bibiography: The Role of the University Press in Knowledge
Diffusion: Past, Present & Future