Sustainability and the Scholarly Enterprise: A History of Gutenberg-e

Abstract

This article analyses the origins, development, and impact of Gutenberg-e, a digital publishing program in historical scholarship sponsored by the American Historical Association (AHA), with the support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Intended as an experiment in developing and legitimizing new modes of historical scholarship, Gutenberg-e quickly evolved, under pressure to become economically sustainable, into a traditional publishing enterprise bent on making books cheaper and paying for itself in the process. Digital technology, which had the power to transform the whole scholarly enterprise, instead became a means to shore up the existing system of scholarly publishing, with all its flaws intact. Though Gutenberg-e has much to teach us about the costs and consequences of that system, especially for the scholars it is meant to serve, it also offers a glimpse of an alternative future. Almost in spite of itself, Gutenberg-e produced a handful of innovative works of digital scholarship, experimented with new forms of scholarly collaboration and community, and highlighted the opportunities of an expanded audience for specialized academic work. These modest achievements suggest the potential of digital technology to create things which scholars value and thereby sustain the scholarly enterprise over the long term.