New publishing models: Developing a common platform for university press e-book distribution

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation recently awarded four university presses with a grant to support development of a collaborative university press electronic book project. The grant, to be administered by NYU Press on behalf of collaborating presses at the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University, and Rutgers University, will fund multifaceted research into the feasibility of developing a consortium of university presses to deliver e-books to libraries on a shared platform. The initiative will be run by and for scholarly publishers, with a primary focus on the needs of university presses and their library customers.On November 20, Monica McCormick, Program Officer for Digital Scholarly Publishing at New York University, will join us to discuss how university presses are thinking about the transition to digital book publishing, the goals of this project and the history behind the grant award, the scope of the initiative, what collaborators will contribute, and how the survey for library customer input is coming together.