University Presses 2008: A Snapshot in Time

Abstract

As those familiar with Choice know, we devote various issues throughout our volume year to particular themes. For many years the May theme has been ‘university press publishing,’ and over those many years the features that make up this thematic concentration have varied. Always included has been our annual press-by-press list of titles the individual presses themselves deem particularly valuable to undergraduates. Accordingly, following the forum, you will find ‘Significant University Press Titles for Undergraduates, 2007–2008,’ which this year includes entries from a record eighty-four presses. The other part of the university press feature has been narrative – in recent years a ‘forum’ in which directors of a handful presses offer their thoughts about their particular press or about university press publishing in general. The subtitle of this year's forum (which follows immediately) – ‘From the Prairie to the Pacific Rim’ – reflects the eclectic nature of the contributions: we make no effort to guide the contributors as to content, since we believe that a true pot luck best reflects what is on the tables (to wrest the most out of the food metaphor) of presses of various sizes and from various parts of North America. Every year we seek out new voices, and we hope eventually to hear from most, if not all, university presses in this forum. Among the new voices we sought out this year was Phil Pochoda's. Director of University of Michigan Press, Phil – like most university press directors – had been thinking a lot about matters digital. When he put his fingers to the keyboard – in response to our invitation – the result was a really meaty feature article that, we believe, deserves a broad audience. Accordingly, you will find herein Phil's piece, ‘The Future of Scholarly Communication: On the Other Side of the Digital Tipping Point.’ As always, we invite reader feedback on these features. E-mail us! Write to us! We welcome your thoughts on these matters or any others related to the work we do at Choice.