Twenty-Five Publishers Contracted for UPCC eBooks Collections on Project MUSE; Over 45 Committed to Participate

Project MUSE is pleased to announce a preliminary list of participating publishers for the UPCC eBook Collections, scheduled for launch on the MUSE platform on January 1, 2012. Twenty-five presses have signed contracts to include their scholarly books in the UPCC Collections, and to date over 45 presses have committed to participate. Further announcements of participating publishers will be made when contracts are completed.

Project MUSE currently has signed agreements with the following presses:

Baylor University Press

Brookings Institution Press

Duke University Press

ELT Press

Fordham University Press

Gallaudet University Press

Indiana University Press

Johns Hopkins University Press

Kent State University Press

Michigan State University Press

NYU Press

Rutgers University Press

Syracuse University Press

Temple University Press

University of Arkansas Press

University of Hawaii Press

University of Michigan Press

University of Nebraska Press

University of Pennsylvania Press

University of Pittsburgh Press

University of Washington Press

University of Wisconsin Press

University Press of New England

Utah State University Press

West Virginia University Press

UPCC eBook Collections on Project MUSE will include both frontlist and backlist offerings, with the digital book content fully integrated for searching and browsing alongside MUSE’s wealth of scholarly journal content. MUSE is applying its fifteen years of experience successfully delivering the best peer-reviewed scholarship to libraries to the development of an electronic book offering that will enrich the research experience and provide easy access and use of book content for scholars and students worldwide. Libraries purchasing UPCC eBook Collections on MUSE will have perpetual access rights, with unlimited simultaneous usage, downloading, and printing of chapter-level PDFs.

Project MUSE will launch a beta site, including free sample book content and a sophisticated new search interface integrating books and journals, in late summer 2011. This site will run in parallel with the current MUSE site until the launch of the UPCC eBook Collections in January 2012. Details on the content and pricing for the UPCC eBook Collections will be available in fall 2011.

At the recent meeting of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) in Philadelphia, Project MUSE presented a well-attended program featuring updates on both its widely-used journal collections and the plans for UPCC eBook Collections. A copy of the slideshow presentation from the meeting is available here. The portion of the program on books begins at slide 8.

“Our partnership with UPCC has greatly expanded the scope of MUSE’s initiative to add books to our platform, with the potential to launch in 2012 with many thousands of books from more than 60 publishers,” said Dean Smith, Project MUSE Director. “The response to the UPCC eBooks Collections from librarians at the ACRL conference was overwhelmingly enthusiastic, and we look forward to providing them a product with high-quality content and excellent value.”

The announcement of the collaboration between Project MUSE and the UPCC (University Press Content Consortium) on eBooks Collections may be found on the MUSE web site. An initial set of questions and answers about digital books on MUSE is also available.

Filed under: Academic Libraries, Associations and Organizations, Companies (Publishers/Vendors), Libraries, Publishing