Newsletter of the Association of American University Presses

["Hamaker, Charles" <cahamake@uncc.edu>]

The Exchange Online
The Newsletter of the Association of American University Presses
03/24/08
http://aaupblog.aaupnet.org/index.php?s=publishing

CONTENTS

MIT Premieres Digital Media & Learning Series
O'Reilly TOC Conference Focuses on Practical Digital Resources
Publishing's Carbon Footprint
AAUP Presses at MLA 2008
Lobbying for the Humanities: Humanities Advocacy Day 2008
Mellon Foundation Supports Four More University Press Collaborations
Caravan Project Begins Second Year with $25,000 NACS Grant

I was particularly impressed with the report on the MIT project
http://aaupblog.aaupnet.org/?p=61

"Supported by a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur 
Foundation, MIT Press has recently published six titles exploring 
the effects and interrelationships of emerging digital 
technologies on youth and learning. The books, available as free 
chapter-by-chapter downloads at MIT's web site and also as cloth 
and paper editions, offer a substantial new body of scholarship 
in the field of digital media and learning, and will be followed 
by a new quarterly journal in winter 2009."

The O'Reilly "Tools of Change (TOC) Conference" was also an 
interesting report, and if the 2008 report is right, represents a 
new development in e-books: "One thing that became clear is that 
the publishing industry is moving on from visionary statements to 
the decidedly less sexy and more productive work of integrating 
new technologies and models into the cycle of scholarly 
communications."

Let's hope its right. Come on, get to it--make e-books practical 
and workable, please!

Overall the newsletter is well worth a read if you haven't 
checked it out.

Chuck Hamaker
Associate University Librarian Collections and Technical Services
Atkins Library
University of North Carolina Charlotte
Charlotte, NC 28223