University presses and the trade book market: Managing in turbulent times

In this article the author addresses the abandonment of the mid-list trade book market by commercial publishing houses and the development of that market niche by entrepreneurially oriented but beleagured university press directors in the 1970s. How many presses are issuing trade books? Hard statistical data is difficult to obtain. Yet a review of university press catalogues reveals a surge of interest in this book area. However, this niche does not belong exclusively to university presses. Intense competition is now surfacing from new, small but aggressive publishing houses interested in this market. This means that university press directors will be compelled to develop and utilize sophisticated marketing strategies if they plan to remain active and successful in this potentially lucrative but hotly contested market.     

“We've no problem inheriting that knowledge on to other people”: Exploring the characteristics of motivation for attending a participatory archives event

While cultural heritage institutions increasingly use participatory events to draw in new audiences, little is known about what motivates participants to attend these events. Twenty semi-structured interviews with 29 individuals who attended one of three Inspiring Ireland 1916 public collection days were conducted in order to explore participants' motivations for attending the event and perceived benefits. A participatory archives event, the collection days invited members of the public to bring relevant possessions to be digitally captured and have their story of the item recorded. The stories and items were then made available on the Inspiring Ireland website commemorating the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin, Ireland. While participatory initiatives have enjoyed increasing attention in the archives literature of late, much of this work attempts to define terms or model behaviours from the perspective of the archivists. Little existing work attempts to explore the motivations of individuals to participate in these events using empirical methods. Findings suggest motivations for attending a collection day can be characterised across four characteristics that can be categorised as aligning with individual or communal perception of benefits: A) to share their story and provide evidence in order to influence the contemporary narrative of the Rising (individual benefit), B) to relieve the burdens of preservation and remembering (individual benefit), C) to find out more about the object or context of the object (individual benefit), and D) to share their object via the open access features of the Inspiring Ireland website as a way to fulfil a civic duty and support a public good (communal benefit). These findings contradict existing literature about the purpose for engaging in participatory initiatives (to pluralise collections) and assumptions about why individuals are motivated to engage (altruistic, intrinsic motivation). Further exploration of the concept of communal versus individual perceived benefit could influence the ways in which cultural heritage institutions justify their role in society. The concept of an archival user is evolving. Understanding how participation can be considered use will help institutions develop a more holistic understanding of use in contemporary settings.     

Who Publishes More Books in U.S. English Departments,Men or Women?

The “gender gap” in the U.S. publication of English language and literature scholarly books has not been fully investigated. In order to investigate gender disparity, we collected, aggregated, and analyzed data on 1633 faculty members who authored or edited 4835 scholarly books at the top 50 U.S. English Ph.D. departments. Despite the fact that more women than men have received Ph.D.s in English since 1987, the top 50 departments are predominantly male, and male faculty members publish more books on a per capita basis. However, who publishes more books in these departments varies: (1) with the department that the faculty member is in (with grater parity in the middle 30 departments); and (2) when the faculty member published their first book, with female faculty who published their first book after 1998 publishing as many books on a per person basis as male faculty. This paper also offers recommendations on how marketing strategies can be used to ameliorate the “gender gap” in this academic field.     

Causal modeling for indirect cost management at universities and colleges

Faculty applications for nonuniversity project funding, relative support requested for research, and the indirect cost rate negotiated for federal research projects are used to forecast overhead one year in advance. They are also used to project the ratio of awarded indirect cost to awarded direct cost. The role of the latter variable in mediating changes in subsequent indirect cost reimbursement is described, as well. By using multiple regression and path analysis, the study demonstrates one way of bridging the gap between theories on indirect cost recovery and statistical methodology. It should be of particular interest to the administrator who seeks to integrate variables which precede overhead reimbursement in time with the university budget process.     

Dilemmas of open admissions policy: quality and efficiency in Swedish higher education

This paper is concerned with the critical question as to whether the performance of the Swedish system of higher education can be considered satisfactory in a general sense and in comparison with other countries. Different efficiency and quality criteria are used in identifying central problems besetting higher education in Sweden. It is concluded that a liberal, unified system with generous admission principles such as that of Sweden, despite its apparently low efficiency, nevertheless would seem to reach an internationally acceptable standard of yield relative to costs. Thus, it is suggested that the improved democratization of higher education in this Nordic country has not been bought at the general expense of quality, as is often claimed by people critical of progressive higher education.