University Press Publishing Research Articles

The Archive and the Internet

The American Historical Association has been in the forefront of professional academic organizations that have seen the potential of the Internet for fomenting the production and circulation of academic scholarship and for contributing to the teaching of history. This has been no more apparent than in the AHA Workshop, “Entering the Second Stage of Online History Scholarship,” carried out in the days before the 118th annual meeting of the American Historical Association and under its auspices. In the AHA Workshop, the topic was electronic scholarly publishing: maintaining its quality, mediating its use and access, and assessing its impact on the changing shape of the profession. It took into account the perspectives of all those involved in scholarly production: authors, journal editors, department chairs, university press publishers and editors, and, at the same time, those involved in mediating its use and access at the technical level, that is, the librarians and technicians.

A Note on the Current State of Humanities Scholarship

A widespread malaise has been notable in our discipline for more than a decade, particularly among those heavily invested in humanities research education. One of the sources of thismalaise—it hasmany—was addressed in a special letter sent to the members of the MLA in May 2002 by Stephen Greenblatt, the organization’s president. Greenblatt pointed to publishing conditions that make it difficult or even impossible for young scholars to meet current standards for tenure in research departments of literature.He called the problem, correctly, a systemic one. For many years, a network of relations has bound together the work of scholarship, academic appointment, and paper-based—in particular, university press—publishing. This network has been breaking up, or down, for many years, and the pace of its unraveling has recently accelerated. In a grotesque inversion of our most basic goals, near-term economics, not long-term scholarship, has been a serious factor in humanities research for some time. Just try to find a publisher for primary documentary materials or for any basic research that doesn’t come labeled for immediate consumption—sell this by such and such a date, before it spoils. Do you see a digital savior waiting to descend? Do you think I see this redeemer?Well, I don’t. But because these broad institutional problems intersect with the emergence of digital technology, we won’t usefully address the former unless we come to terms with the latter. Consider this. For as long as I’ve been an educator a system of apartheid has marked literary and cultural studies. On one hand, we have editing and textual studies, on the other, theory and interpretation. I don’t have to tell you which of these two classes of work has been regarded asmenial if somehow also necessary. And like any systemof apartheid, bothgroupshavebeen

My Turn: Reading the Agenda of the 2003 Annual AAUP Directors' Meeting to Discover What's Wrong With University Press Publishing

One of the hardest tasks for my authors is to step out of their disciplinary isolation and give me a one-liner about their book that will make sense to the average intelligent reader. It’s not that these bright people can’t accomplish the task, but after having been trained to communicate in highly specific (and therefore often exclusionary) ways, it can be hard for them to surface long enough to see the big picture. So too I believe that university presses have developed ways of communicating among ourselves that reinforce stereotypes about what we do, who our masters are, and where we believe our activity ranks in the ever-shifting sands of university fiscal priorities. A notable example of this is the meticulously crafted agenda for the annual directors’ meeting held in conjunction with the 2003 annual meeting of the Association of American University Presses (AAUP). At the outset, I offer my apologies to those who crafted the document (they do not deserve to have their words picked apart like this!). Admittedly without full regard to the valuable substance of the discussions at the meeting, I hope to draw attention to the way our presumably innocent use of language is working against us in these troubled times. Battle lines are quite literally drawn by the agenda’s title, ‘Tales from the Front Lines.’ This is to be a meeting for beleaguered warriors eager to continue fighting the good fight.

Ornamentalism: How the British Saw Their Empire (review)

In his preface to Ornamentalism, David Cannadine describes the United States as "the last authentic western imperial power" (xiii). In light of the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and public interest in the nature of empire, the significance of Cannadine's book has increased since it first appeared as part of a larger Oxford University Press publishing venture that included the five volumes of the Oxford History of the British Empire (1998-99) and Jane Samson's useful reader, The British Empire (2001). Nonetheless, it is important to go back to Cannadine's original purpose in writing Ornamentalism, for which he had wished to borrow the title of Joseph Schumpeter's Imperialism and Social Classes (1951). Like Schumpeter's quirky analysis of the atavistic mercantile and military nature of European imperialism, Cannadine's exploration of "social structure" and "social perceptions" [End Page 532] (xviii) in the rise and fall of the British empire pursues an intriguing but contentious thesis about imperialism and social hierarchies.

Online Journal Pricing

Summary Many commercial, association, and university press publishers have transferred the two-tier subscription plan into the online journals environment. First-copy costs are generally charged to institutional and nonmember subscribers. Some associations are permitting access to electronic and print formats for the price of the print subscription. Others charge a relatively modest add-on cost for access to the online version. A few associations are charging significantly greater subscription prices for online access and plan to eventually eliminate the print format. Many online reference serials are priced according to the number of simultaneous users required. Some electronic journal aggregators have adopted this pricing scheme for their services.

Diplomacy in isolation

Isolated States: A Comparative Analysis by Deon Geldenhuys. Jonathan Ball, Johannesburg, 1990.764 pp. including notes and index. South Africa's Foreign Policy: The Search for Status and Security 1945 ‐ 1988 by James Barber and John Barratt. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge and Southern Book Publishers, Johannesburg, 1990. ix plus 398 pp. including appendix, notes and index.

Changing sales and markets of American university presses, 1960–1990

Have university presses shifted their focus toward trade books? It so, when did this shift occur and why? Changes in funding of research and education, in consumer spending and publishers' sales, and in trade publishers' attitudes toward “midlist” books are discussed as influential factors. The article also examines the way university presses define trade books and the impact of publishing trade books on university press lists. Finally, the article describes current trends in university press publishing.

MUSIC IN MANTUA

Journal Article MUSIC IN MANTUA Get access ROSEMARY DOOLEY ROSEMARY DOOLEY Cambridge University PressPublishing Division, The Edinburgh Building, Shaftesbury Road, Cambridge CB2 2RU. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Music and Letters, Volume 65, Issue 4, October 1984, Page 436, https://doi.org/10.1093/ml/65.4.436 Published: 01 October 1984

Sky Atlas 2000.0 — by Wil Tirion . Cambridge University Press and Sky Publishing Corporation. Deluxe Edition 1981, 20x41 cm, 26 charts in colour, $A29.95. Copy supplied by CAMBRIDGE University Press (Australia) Pty Ltd.

Sky Atlas 2000.0 — by Wil Tirion . Cambridge University Press and Sky Publishing Corporation. Deluxe Edition 1981, 20x41 cm, 26 charts in colour, $A29.95. Copy supplied by CAMBRIDGE University Press (Australia) Pty Ltd.

The New Solar System — Edited by J. Kelly Beatty, Brian O’Leary and Andrew Chaikin. 224 pp. $A22.50 Cambridge University Press and Sky Publishing Corporation 1981

The New Solar System — Edited by J. Kelly Beatty, Brian O’Leary and Andrew Chaikin. 224 pp. $A22.50 Cambridge University Press and Sky Publishing Corporation 1981

Church and Revolution in Rwanda. By Ian Linden with Jane Linden. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press and Africana Publishing Company, 1977. xvi + 304 pp. $24.50.

Church and Revolution in Rwanda. By Ian Linden with Jane Linden. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press and Africana Publishing Company, 1977. xvi + 304 pp. $24.50.

Book Reviews : AMERICAN DRINKING PRACTICES by Don Cahalan, Ira H. Cisin, Helen M. Crossley Monographs of the Rutgers Center of Alcohol Studies 6 College and University Press Publishers, 263 Chapel Street, New Haven, Conn. 1969, stiff cloth binding, XXVI + 260 pp., 111 tables, index of subjects $9.50

Book Reviews : AMERICAN DRINKING PRACTICES by Don Cahalan, Ira H. Cisin, Helen M. Crossley Monographs of the Rutgers Center of Alcohol Studies 6 College and University Press Publishers, 263 Chapel Street, New Haven, Conn. 1969, stiff cloth binding, XXVI + 260 pp., 111 tables, index of subjects $9.50

Are there too many Books?

Shortly after you so kindly in‐vited me to speak to you I noticed on my bookshelves a scarce book published by the Oxford University Press in 1903 entitled A Chart of Oxford Printing, ‘1468’‐1900. In this book Falconer Madan exhibited the fluctuations in the output of the Printing press at Oxford from its beginnings down to the time when popular education was just making its effect felt in a considerably increased demand for its books. In the chart which Madan prepared we see graphically the varying, but gradually increasing, number of books printed or published by Oxford alone over the centuries, from ones and twos annually in the 1480s to the rising volume of 40 or so in the 17th century (over 100 exceptionally in 1643) on to the two hundreds of Victorian times. Today, i.e., in 1952, we have the Oxford University Press publishing, or becoming agents for, 767 new books or reprints.