Re: Gutenberg-e

[Ann Okerson <ann.okerson@yale.edu>]

Forwarded from Kate Wittenberg, Columbia University, who managed 
this project throughout its life:

____

Ann:  I hope you don't mind if I share some personal thoughts 
about the Gutenberg-e project, as I am concerned that some 
important issues may have gotten lost in the flurry of press 
surrounding the recent decisions regarding distribution of the 
digital books. As you know, I have been involved in this project 
from the start, and I wanted to share some of my thoughts looking 
back at the project from this point near its completion. You may 
share some, all, or none of this with your colleagues and readers 
as you think best.

Gutenberg-e was created as a bold experiment to explore whether 
peer-reviewed, born-digital monographs by young academics would 
alter the way in which historical scholarship is presented, 
whether the scholars would received the same professional credit 
for these publications that they would receive from work 
published in print, and whether the project would permit 
publication of monographs that would otherwise be turned down for 
financial reasons by university presses. The long-term business 
model for this enterprise was not the main focus of the project, 
although we did always hope that there would be a way to receive 
sufficient revenue to allow for the maintenance, and possibly the 
continued development of the series.

This project has a long and complicated history that includes 
many exciting breakthroughs as well as a number of significant 
challenges. The authors involved are courageous and innovative 
scholars, and in my view represent the best of the next 
generation of historians. A number of them have created 
completely new models of author/publisher collaboration in the 
scholarly communication process, as well as new models of 
historical scholarship and narrative. The authors who have come 
up for tenure have received it, with their Gutenberg-e book being 
their major publication. Most of the e-books have been reviewed 
positively in distinguished history journals.

In complex research projects that are managed by multiple 
organizations, agendas and missions sometimes get confused.  The 
fact that a decision was made to have the e-books distributed 
through the ACLS E-Humanities publishing project, while 
maintaining them in their original form on the Gutenberg-e.org 
website hosted by the Columbia University Libraries, is not a 
condemnation of the project as an economic failure. Rather, it is 
a creative solution to stabilizing and ensuring the availability 
and preservation of these works over time.  If, in the future, 
the Press, the Libraries, or some new organization that does not 
yet exist takes on the mission of publication of digital 
scholarship in history, the Gutenberg-e series will be made 
available, as appropriate, through this project as well. The 
point is that we have broken new ground, learned a tremendous 
amount, provided a group of scholars with beautifully designed 
and produced publications, and offered a new model of university 
press/library/information technology collaboration in scholarly 
communication. These are findings that few would consider a 
failed experiment and that instead offer valuable models and 
knowledge for others.

Kate Wittenberg
Manager, E-Publishing Programs
Center for Digital Research and Scholarship
Columbia University
330 Fifth Avenue, 12th Floor
New York, NY 10001
212 851-2923
kw49@columbia.edu