Presses

Some in academic publishing think the latest twist in the story of Black Elk Speaks amounts to poetic justice. Others see a sign of just how vulnerable their industry is these days. In either case, this is the story of a book that is much loved and whose fate has been much debated.

Rice U. shuts down its digital university press -- going against recommendations of outside reviewers. With 2 other presses closing, some see growing vulnerability for small outfits.

Criticism from librarians prompts JSTOR to promise changes to its recently redesigned database portal.

Susquehanna U. Press is placed "on hiatus." Move follows decisions at Rice, Scranton and SMU.

A special issue of The Journal of Electronic Publishing being released today features a series of calls for change in the way university presses are run -- suggesting that the current business model is collapsing.

The essays in the journal argue that the strategy of bolstering the existing model of selling print versions of monographs is doomed to fail, even if many advocates for scholarly publishing have defended it amid the economic and technological changes of the last decade.

Lahore With Love: Growing Up With Girlfriends Pakistani Style was published last year by Syracuse University Press, and the fictionalized memoir quickly won praise. Henry Louis Gates Jr. called it "marvelously compelling and endlessly entertaining, at once poignantly personal and richly political."

Some university presses are seeing surges in digital book sales since the New Year — especially in backlist titles with little marketing support.

At university press meeting, some see advantage to having their works copied without permission.