Guest Post — In Tough Times the Key is to Think Differently
Alan Harvey from Stanford University Press discusses their evolving strategy in turbulent times.
Guest Post — Entering a New Age of Digital Publishing: Dispatch from Digital Book World 2023
John Warren and his students (MPS in Publishing, George Washington University) share perspectives on attending Digital Book World 2023 and the trends and highlights relevant for scholarly publishers.
Guest Post — The Monograph and the Mission: University of Michigan Pledges $1.2 Million to Fund Open Access Book Publishing
The University of Michigan Press discusses its burgeoning open access monograph program.
Book Wars: The Digital Revolution in Publishing
This substantive work from John B. Thompson provides a historical overview and analysis of technological and legal challenges to publishing practices in the 21st century.
Happy Birthday to the eBook!
On July 4, 1971 Michael Hart posted the first ebook file on the ARPANET and transformed content distribution.
Revisiting: Dear Reader, Are You Reading?
What does it actually mean to read digitally? Revisiting a 2018 post in light of the ongoing, pandemic-fueled drive to digital.
Guest Post — Why Inclusion Matters to Technology and Technology Matters to Inclusion
Today’s guest post is by Betsy Beaumon CEO of Benetech and keynote at SSP’s annual meeting this year. She shares her passion for technology solutions to accessibility, and for making the scholarly publishing world more inclusive of people with disabilities.
Learning Lessons from DPLA
A not-for-profit library collaborative, the Digital Public Library of America, laid off six members of its small team and is announcing a strategic pivot. What are some of the broader lessons that we can learn about innovation and collaboration in the scholarly communications sector?
Knowledge Unlatched Announces Transformation: An Interview with Sven Fund
Knowledge Unlatched has announced its “transformation into a central open access platform.” What does that mean, exactly? An interview with Managing Director Sven Fund.
The Multifarious Book
The book is asked to perform many tasks, some of which are not necessarily the best use of the book format, whether in print or electronically. The long-form text, which may be print or digital, is a different matter, and is likely to remain with us and be called “a book” for some time to come.
The Ebook R/Evolution – Not as Easy as It Seems
The “ebook revolution” in scholarly publishing has behaved more like an evolution. Are we reaching a key inflection point where users are central to our innovations?
Succession Planning
Robert Harington attempts to help you think through how to develop a strategy for succession planning, recognizing that in today’s world, people just don’t stay at their jobs as long as they used to.
The Strategic Direction of Research Library Leaders: Findings from the Latest Ithaka S+R Survey
Yesterday, Ithaka S+R published findings from our triennial survey of library deans and directors at academic institutions in the United States. The report examines the strategic directions of academic libraries as well as their staffing and spending plans for the coming years. The pivot towards new research, teaching, and learning services, and towards distinctive collections, is continuing, although it is encountering some headwinds.
Is the Proposed Merger of IDPF and W3C Good for Publishers?
The IDPF and the W3C recently announced they were making plans to merge. Will this merger be good for publishers by integrating them more closely into the community that manages the web infrastructure? Or will the merger result in diminishing publisher control over one of the important distribution standards for digital texts? The past five years of experience doesn’t give reason to be reassured of the outcome.
Interview with an Empire: Tim Collins, CEO of EBSCO Industries
Robert Harington asks Tim Collins for his views on publishing industry trends seen through the prism of his leadership role at EBSCO, exploring Tim’s sense of a connected world of stakeholders in today’s publishing industry.