The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded a $282,000 one-year
planning grant to six university presses to collaboratively develop a digital
collection of New World archaeology scholarship.
The University Press of Colorado, Texas A&M University Press, University of Alabama Press, University of Arizona Press, University Press
of Florida and University of Utah Press will
jointly explore ways to deliver data- and illustration-rich digital editions of
cutting-edge archaeological research. The project, called the Archaeology of the
Americas Digital Monograph Initiative, will give scholars and professional
archaeologists the ability to review supplemental data not often contained in
conventionally published volumes.
“This initiative will push the boundaries of the scholarly monograph,” said
Darrin Pratt, director of the University Press of Colorado. “To date, most
digital publication has been the simple replication of print books in PDF or
HTML format.”
Enhanced by large data sets, color illustrations, video components,
three-dimensional, rotatable images and, in some cases, interactive components
such as reader commenting, the digital platform could “stretch our very
conception of the book,” Pratt said.
The University Press of Colorado will administer the planning grant, which
will fund a shared project manager. If the program reaches full implementation,
the presses could potentially create a third party entity devoted to the
creation and maintenance of the digital platform. The presses also plan to work
on a business model for the proposed platform.
Meredith Morris-Babb, director of the University Press of Florida said
development of a strong fiscal model is critical to the project's success.
“Generating sustainable levels of revenue from digital publications has
proved tricky for university presses,” she said.
University of Arizona Press Editor-in-Chief Allyson Carter said the strength
of the archaeology-focused digital initiative lies in the depth and breadth of
the participating presses in New World archaeology.
Together, the participating presses publish more than 70 titles in this field
annually, focusing on the southeastern and southwestern United States, the
Mountain West, Great Basin, Texas, Mexico, Central America, South America and
the Caribbean as well as the early hunter-gatherers that peopled the Americas.
The presses plan to develop a prototype digital book, providing a workable
platform that could potentially be used by scholarly presses around the world.
While the initiative will involve publishing many of the same books both in
print and digital form, the participating presses will enhance digital editions
with data not currently available in most printed books in the field.
Like scholarly books in other humanities fields, sales of archaeology titles
remain limited. Presses also must enforce strict length and image limitations to
constrain production costs.
“Many archaeologists have turned to supplementary CDs and personal Web sites
as a place to post important context missing from their print work,” said Mary
Lenn Dixon, editor-in-chief of Texas A&M University Press. “We hope this
initiative will help these authors reconnect that context to the arguments made
in their books.”
