The University of Pittsburgh’s University Library System (ULS) and University Press have formed a partnership to provide digital editions of press titles as part of the library system’s D-Scribe Digital Publishing Program. Thirty-nine books from the Pitt Latin American Series published by the University of Pittsburgh Press are now available online, freely accessible to scholars and students worldwide. Ultimately, most of the Press’ titles older than 2 years will be provided through this open access platform.
For the past decade, the University Library System has been building digital collections on the Web under its D-Scribe Digital Publishing Program....
The D-Scribe Digital Publishing Program includes digitized materials drawn from Pitt collections and those of other libraries and cultural institutions in the region, pre-print repositories in several disciplines, the University’s mandatory electronic theses and dissertations program, and electronic journals during the past eight years, sixty separate collections have been digitized and made freely accessible via the World Wide Web....The D-Scribe collections are accessible free-of-charge on the World Wide Web....
More titles will be added to the University of Pittsburgh Press Digital Editions each month until most of the current scholarly books published by the Press are available both in print and as digital editions....
Comment. Kudos to Pitt. This is a model for other university presses and institutional repositories. If a press is nervous about publishing dual (OA and non-OA) editions of new books, it could emulate the Pitt model: start with a non-OA edition and after two years add the OA edition. If an institutional repository is reaching out to different parts of campus for content, it could emulate the Pitt model: offer to host OA editions of backlist titles from the university press.
Update. Also see the article in today's Library Journal Academic Newswire. Excerpt:
In an ambitious expansion of its existing D-Scribe program, the University of Pittsburgh University Library System (ULS) and the University of Pittsburgh Press (UPP) have announced a partnership that will eventually offer open access to digital editions of the press's entire backlist. The partnership kicks off with 39 books from the Pitt Latin American Series, now available online and freely accessible to scholars and students worldwide.
"The goal of our collaboration is to digitize and make available all, or almost all, of the UP Press backlist and then to continue to place online all imprints after two years," Pitt director of libraries Rush Miller told the LJ Academic Newswire. "In other words, the press will continue to produce the hard copy and sell it for two years," he explained, "then the title goes open access via D-Scribe." ...
The press currently has about 500 backlist titles.
While many university presses have looked warily upon open access, Pitt's commitment represents a significant partnership between libraries and presses. UPP director Cynthia Miller (no relation) is "a cautious supporter" of open access, Miller noted. "We have been in discussions for several years about this type of project. She does not believe that this arrangement with us will cut into her initial sales," he explained, adding that the UP Press has largely moved to print on demand for its older titles. "This is just another step." ...
Posted by
Peter Suber at 11/29/2007 08:41:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
