Feature


All change foruniversity presses


From bypassing aggregators to the influx of new university presses, the world of library-based publishing is changing fast, reports Rebecca Pool


4 Research Information August/September 2019


This year two leading US university presses made the bold step to bypass scholarly publishing aggregators and distributors, such as EBSCO and ProQuest, and sell digital collections directly to libraries.


Using custom platforms to host e-book


collections, MIT Press and the University of Michigan Press join Duke University Press, which has sold electronic collections to libraries since 2005, and UK mainstays Oxford and Cambridge University presses. Why take action now? Each press has


cited myriad reasons but the rise of digital books has been key. In Going it Alone: Why University Presses are Creating their Own E-book Collections, Terry Ehling, director for strategic initiatives at MIT Press, highlights how the purchasing behaviour of institutional customers now shows a much stronger preference for digital books acquisition. And Charles Watkinson, director of the University of Michigan Press, (UMP) concurs. ‘In the past, e-books provided marginal


income but more recently it’s become clear libraries are substituting print books


@researchinfo | www.researchinformation.info


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36