Slavica Publishers: Fifty Years of Service to the Slavic Field

ABSTRACT

Slavica Publishers has played an important role in the fields of Slavic languages and literatures and Slavic area studies for 50 years. This article provides a brief history of the publishing house, focusing on key book and journal publications; the transition in 1997 from closely held privately owned corporation to not-for-profit status as a unit of Indiana University; evolution from predominately self-produced authors’ CRC to professionally typeset and edited volumes; and plans to keep Slavica relevant in the future. It is implicit that Slavica might serve as a model for other struggling small academic presses in this time of rapid change and chaos in scholarly publishing.     

Co-editing an Academic Manuscript: A Lesson in Project Management

Co-editing and publishing a book is a scholarly endeavour, involving legally binding contracts, countless hours of administrative work, impeccable organizing skills and regular communication between the various stakeholders such as authors, peer-reviewers, and different departments within the publishing house. For Kumaran and Maddison, the authors of this article, their book-editing project was also a lesson in project management. The article provides details on all aspects of co-editing and publishing a large-scale book project from conception to final publication, including how they achieved their project goals, and the lessons they learned along the way.     

Publishing in Serbia

Abstract

The history of Serbian publishing is inextricably tied to Serbian and Yugoslav history in general. The author discusses publishing in the territory from the beginning, concentrating on the period 1990-1999. She deals with statistics, and basic themes and problems from this period. She then compares censorship in communist Yugoslavia to that in 1990-1999. Finally, the article lists leading Serbian publishers from this recent period and their profiles.     

Partnership as a New Paradigm for Reference Librarians in African Studies

SUMMARY

This article examines the changing paradigms of reference librarianship as they relate to the study of Africa. It discusses important issues to do with the role of the reference librarian in assisting future scholarly research. Particular attention is given to how electronic resources are influencing the nature of Africana reference services and collection development. Given the problems faced in accessing information from Africa, emphasis is also placed on how partnerships between U.S. and African libraries and scholarly institutions can help improve information access in and about Africa.     

Reference Publishing in the Age of Also

Summary

Reference publishing is in an era of competing technologies: print and electronic. For large multivolume reference books, the transition from being primarily a print resource to being primarily electronic is well advanced, perhaps nearly complete. For many smaller reference books, such as dictionaries, thesauruses, and almanacs, the transition is less advanced; in fact, it seems likely that print and electronic editions of such works may coexist for years to come. There are good reasons for this to happen, but this situation also poses challenges to librarians, publishers, and patrons. This article reviews some of the aspects of this transitional era in terms of what has been learned so far and what may develop in the future.     

Russia and the Low Countries: An International Bibliography 1500–2000

Abstract

The single most difficult situation publishers have faced since the depression and hyperinflation of 1991-1993 was the financial crisis which began on August 17, 1998. Prior to August 17, Russian publishers were on track to produce a record number of titles. After August 17, production plummeted. Yet by March of 1999 the industry was reviving, and as of May production had returned roughly to pre-cri-sis levels. The August crisis was a severe test for the publishing industry, but the rapid recovery demonstrates its vitality. The authors discuss monographs primarily, but serials are also included. They also explain why caution is necessary when using official Russian publishing statistics since 1991 and how such statistics can still be useful.     

Libraries and Faculty Collaboration: Four Digital Scholarship Examples

ABSTRACT

About twenty years ago, the Internet began to change the way people create, access, publish, and share information. The impact of this information revolution has been felt in every industry. For instance, the Internet has enabled new models in the publishing sector, which has subsequently impacted education and changed the landscape of teaching and learning. About a decade ago, the introduction of new buzzwords such as open access, electronic publishing, digital humanities, and digital scholarship continued to challenge the scholarly production and dissemination of knowledge. Undoubtedly, these changes also created new opportunities for collaboration among multidisciplinary groups including researchers, scholars, students, technologists, librarians, and others. In this article, the author discusses four successful faculty-driven digital scholarship projects that his library system has supported in the last two years. His team's work serves as an example of how academic libraries and centers for digital scholarship at undergraduate institutions can support digital humanities and digital scholarship initiatives. Additionally, the case examples can contribute to the ongoing discussion of new roles for librarians and technologists in working with scholars and students to gain the skills necessary to implement digital scholarship projects.     

Private Lives in Public Places–Oral Histories of Performing Artists: How Much Do You Really Want to Know?

ABSTRACT

This article is an exploration of oral history practice within the context of a performing arts archive. It addresses the deceptively simple question of what oral historians should actually ask their respondents and, ultimately, how much do we, as researchers, really want to know. The use of oral history material is discussed from a historical point of view in relation to archival collecting and the needs of scholars and researchers. The notion that oral history practice must both respond to and transcend this history is set forward. The article concludes by advocating an expansive approach to oral history as a means to more fully understand and preserve our pasts.     

国内外学位论文再出版的政策研究及启示

博、硕士学位论文具有重要的学术价值,而国内外学术界和出版界对于学位论文内容的再出版问题持有不同的观点。通过调研国内外学术界和出版界发现,国外绝大多数高校和出版机构认为学位论文并不算作先前出版物,基于学位论文内容再出版的稿件能否被接受,关键在于稿件的质量,另外,根据不同出版机构及受众特点对学位论文进行修改是非常必要的。国内相关研究尚待深入,多数研究人员和期刊编辑认为,学位论文因学术价值的特殊性,其析出内容的再出版应得到更加理性和全面的分析。面对纷繁乱象,建议我国有关部门应尽快出台相关规定,出版机构阐明学位论文与先前出版物的关系,以及对于学位论文析出内容再出版的要求,以适应网络出版日益普及的新形势。     

科技期刊编辑与审稿专家密切合作的措施

审稿是科技期刊编辑流程中的重要环节.加强编辑与审稿专家的联系与合作,有利于提高审稿质量,缩短论文发表周期,进而提高刊物的学术水平.探讨编辑如何加强自身初审能力的培养,以及在审稿工作中如何做好与审稿专家的联系与合作.     

如何有效避免科技期刊论文的反复退修

退修工作是科技论文发表的重要编辑环节,也是论文质量把关的关键所在.一篇论文多次反复地退修不仅会增加编辑和作者的工作量,而且会在一定程度上挫伤作者修改文章的积极性,更重要的是,延长了论文发表周期.文章分析反复退修的原因,并从编辑的角度提出如何在保证论文质量的前提下有效地减少论文退修次数的策略.     

Online Finding Aids: Are They Practical?

ABSTRACT

This article explores the uses, practicality, and problems involved in creating online finding aids by state-funded university archivists across the nation. It examines various aspects of online finding aids such as financial considerations, its importance as a research tool, timelines, demographics, and use. The more technical side is also explored by inquiring how finding aids are created (e.g., EAD/XML, HTML), whether they have been reformatted before appearing on the web, and what archivists believe are the best methods for their creation. Finally, problems that the participants have encountered along the way are reviewed as well as how archivists dealt with them. The study involved 16 university archivists from state-supported institutions and one from a private university. The research for this article is based on the responses to a 20-question survey that was administered by the author by telephone or e-mail. The research was further supported by an examination of the recent literature that has appeared in archival journals as well as contacting archivists who are working on large online projects. The goal of this article is to assist archivists in identifying potential problems in the development of online finding aids while promoting their presence on the Internet as an important research tool.     

Legal Publishing: Establishing Context through the Lens of Disruptive Innovation

ABSTRACT

As legal research tools come and go, an understanding of the continuing changes in legal publishing can provide a better understanding of those developments. One way in which law librarians can gain insight into the dynamic legal publishing world is by looking through the lens created by the innovative disruption model as proposed by Clayton Christensen almost 20 years ago. This article suggests that the Christensen model can provide valuable context to what is happening and may happen in legal publishing in the future.     

Russian Publishing, 2000-2001

Abstract

The Russian government is exerting increasing control over the country's media, although the media are resisting. This government-media conflict is relevant to Western academics and libraries, because the variety and quality of Russian periodicals is at stake. In addition, if the media are constrained, publishers of books are likely to experience restrictions, too. The difficulties the government is having in controlling the media, however, are a measure of how much Russia has changed. At the same time this conflict is occurring, book publishing is thriving. Official statistics show the number of titles published surpassed even the previous record set in 1977. Planning is in progress to restructure the state book industry sector, including publishing, printing and distribution. Book prices have increased more rapidly than inflation, and postage costs have also increased. Russian Press Service is doing its best to keep its prices to Western libraries down.     

Practising what we preach: working together to further scientific collaboration

The recent shift in Internet usage – from content being simply consumed by users, to content that users create, interact with, and share – has challenged traditional publishing values and processes. This has, in turn, brought opportunities to explore and experiment with new technologies in the publishing industry. Elsevier's social bookmarking and collaboration tool for researchers, 2collab, was launched in November 2007 to address this shift. This article reviews how 2collab was built in close partnership with researchers, and how traditional processes had to be adapted to facilitate this. It outlines the current use of social applications among scientists and shows that nearly 50% of researchers anticipate that social tools like 2collab will have at least some impact on all areas of their research in the next five years.