Open access monographs

[Gary Hall <gary AT garyhall.info>]

Dear Sean,

Thanks, this is really helpful. And no, I don't think this is material 
we have already talked through. To continue the conversation...

I wonder if it wouldn't be easier, cheaper and quicker to publish a lot 
of the material you mention - books that go out of print and whose 
rights revert to the authors, specialist monographs published in xerox 
or photolitho, those which have exhausted their commercial potential or 
which have no commercial potential - in a subject-orientated or 
institutional OA repository? One of the ideas behind the CSeARCH archive 
I'm involved with via Culture Machine, for instance 
(http://www.culturemachine.net/csearch), is to make this possible with 
regard to books and monographs that are cultural studies and cultural 
theory-related. But I'm not trying to self-publicize: there are of 
course many other such OA archives (although you're right, not all of 
them accept books, I know).

My experience of being involved with the launch of OHP was being on the 
receiving end of a number of queries as to if and when OHP was going to 
be producing monographs. And my sense was that this was motivated, not 
so much by a desire to have access to hard-to-get titles from the past - 
although I agree with you, this is very important - but more  in 
response to the general 'crisis' in monograph publishing in the 
humanities in the present. People in the humanities are simply finding 
it harder and harder to publish research-led books. And yet it's often 
these books that they're most interested in writing and which they feel 
can make a significant contribution to the field. It's certainly on 
research led monographs that their careers often depend.

I very much like the idea of creating a pedagogical link between the 
idea of OHP publishing monographs and those departments and institutions 
that are producing skilled professionals for the publishing world. Long 
term it'd also be a great way of breaking down some of the simplistic 
oppositions between publishers on the one hand and academics on the 
other associated with OA.

Thanks, Gary


--
Gary Hall Professor of Media and Performing Arts
School of Art and Design, Coventry University
Co-editor of Culture Machine http://www.culturemachine.net
Director of the Cultural Studies Open Access Archive
http://www.culturemachine.net/csearch
Co-founder of the Open Humanities Press
http://www.openhumanitiespress.org
My website http://www.garyhall.info



Sean Cubitt wrote:
> Dear Colleagues
>
> A coup,e of swift thoughts, as I have deadlines to chase this weekend
>
> 1. there are numbers of books which go out of print every year. Standard
> contracts seem in general to revert rights to authors. Republishing
> significant lost humanities titles, especially those whose specialism or
> timeliness militates against republication might eb a significant activity
> to broker. If scanned, such texts require a lot less production.
>
> 2. I presume Mark davis is on this list - mark's department and no doubt
> others across the world produce highly skilled professionals for the
> publishing industry. There might be a possibility of creating a pedagogical
> link to the mutual benefit of both parties
>
> 3. In my current research I keep coming up on 1960s and 70s specialist
> monographs published in what appears to be xerox or photolitho, especially
> in history and phlosophy of science. Unless a learned society has a
> monographs arm titles like 'The History of Colorimetry and Sensitometry' are
> not going to have a commercial life, but as in that case, sean F Johnston's
> book is the making of mine. I suppose my contention is really this
>
> Whiuch monographs most benefit from digital publishing?
> - those which have already exhausted their commercial potential
> - those which have no commercial potential
> - those which are urgently attached to the present - such titles might be
> revised for hardcopy publication, so might be considered pre=press, on the
> scientific model
>
> There may also be a category for which hyperlinking is of value, or the
> cheapness of colour reproduction
>
> My apologies if this is all material you've have talked through already, and
> thanks for inviting me to participate
>
> Sean
>
>
>
> Prof Sean Cubitt
> scubitt AT unimelb.edu.au
> Director
> Media and Communications Program
> Faculty of Arts
> Room 127 John Medley East
> The University of Melbourne
> Parkville VIC 3010
> Australia
>
> Tel: + 61 3 8344 3667
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>
> Editor-in-Chief Leonardo Book Series
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>
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--
Gary Hall 
Professor of Media and Performing Arts
School of Art and Design, Coventry University
Co-editor of Culture Machine http://www.culturemachine.net
Director of the Cultural Studies Open Access Archive
http://www.culturemachine.net/csearch
Co-founder of the Open Humanities Press
http://www.openhumanitiespress.org
My website http://www.garyhall.info