FEATURE
E-book platforms
Breaking down monograph borders
Siân Harris looks at the dawn of a new era in the story of university presses – the cross-press platform
T
here was a time when publishers were completely separate from each other. But, as the possibilities of the internet have grown, the boundaries between publishers are being broken down.
This trend is illustrated in recent developments from university presses. The past few months have seen a plethora of announcements of platforms offering the e-books from a range of university presses. The model of university presses bringing
their content together is not a new one. Although some university presses approach the sizes of major commercial publishers, most are much smaller, with a handful of journals and a small monograph list. As digital access became more common, many small presses have struggled to compete with the technical capabilities of larger publishers. Against this backdrop, initiatives such as
Project MUSE and JSTOR grew up. These platforms bring together journal content from many university presses, along with the search capabilities and functionality that users increasingly expect. Fast forward a few years and e-books have replaced e-journals as the pressing concern for smaller publishers. At particular risk of being sidelined is that staple of the university press, the scholarly monograph. Of course, there are some very large university presses that have had monograph platforms for many years. Oxford Scholarship Online (OPO) from Oxford University Press (OUP), for example, was launched in 2003 and is now available in 60 per cent of research libraries, according to the publisher. Cambridge University Press also has its own book platform, Cambridge Books Online, which it says has been very popular with academic libraries since its launch last year. These presses have used their existing platforms as the models for new cross-
24 Research Information DEC 2011/JAN 2012
university press monograph platforms, both of which were launched in October. And 2012 will see the launch of further initiatives when Project MUSE (in January) and JSTOR (in June) extend their existing journal services to books. ‘The unprecedented speed of change in the electronic publishing environment presents both challenges and signifi cant opportunities for publishers,’ noted Timothy Wright, chief executive of Edinburgh University Press, which has already announced its participation
is content relevant to our users beyond our content. We have taken the functionality of OPO such as XML and tagging to other university presses,’ said Scott Beebe, online publishing manager at OUP. OUP launched its platform with research monographs from Fordham University Press; the American University in Cairo; the University Press of Kentucky; University Press of Florida; and Hong Kong University Press. Edinburgh University Press and Policy Press will be among the additional presses that will become available in the platform’s fi rst update next March. Cambridge University Press’s platform,
which launched within a few weeks of OUP’s, has similarly attracted support from other presses. ‘University Publishing Online provides aggregated content from Foundation Books of India, the Mathematical Association of America, and Liverpool University Press and Cambridge University Press in the UK. Access to content from Edinburgh University Press and Nottingham University Press will be available from early 2012,’ said Hannah Perrett, the company’s strategic development director of digital partnerships. ‘The new platform means that customers will be able to access important academic works and research from various publishers, in one place.’
‘Users no longer necessarily go to the library
catalogue. We’re paving the way for them to have multiple routes to content’ Scott Beebe, OUP
next year in three of these initiatives: Cambridge University Press’s University Publishing Online, Oxford University Press’s University Press Scholarship Online and Books at JSTOR. The benefi ts for other presses of these ‘super platforms’, according to their creators, are alternative revenue streams, greater visibility and impact, as well as important attributes such as discoverability and preservation. ‘OPO has been well received by libraries for many years and we had the idea that there
Books at JSTOR has also been busy building partnerships with publishers and expects to have content from almost 30 presses when it launches in June. This, it anticipates, will equate to more than 20,000 e-books. All books will be preserved in Portico, says the organisation. Before that, the University Press Content Consortium (UPCC), which emerged from a collaborative e-book initiative from the Johns Hopkins University Press and the University Press eBook Consortium, will be launched by
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