University Library Scholarly Publishing Office, Monthly Report, March 2001
March saw incremental progress on a number of fronts. Staff have been cutting their teeth on the text class implementation of The Medeival Review; that process is near completion. Significant progress was made on the MQR backfile and we have begun experimenting with design issues for the online display. The Labadie exhibit is also near completion, as is the SPO web site. Activity with ACLS is heating up some, and we expect to be fully engaged in the backfile conversion process by May. The programmer interview process was concluded and we hope to make a hire very shortly.
1 Program building
1.1 Build understanding of the needs and concerns of campus publishers by conducting an environmental study, including
- Compile
list of scholarly publishers on Campus (including content, frequency of
publication, etc.)
- Contact
editors- introduce ourselves, get information from editors on their current
tools, processes, their interests in e-publishing, their needs in this area,
their concerns -- perhaps a formal survey?
- Analysis
and summary of survey information
The survey is out but response has been disappointly low. Only two have been returned. We will beat the bushes a bit on this in April.
1.2 Work
with
OVPR/Rackham
to promote moving subsidized journals to electronic publication
No activity in this area
1.3 Possible
meeting of university libraries engaged in publishing efforts in their first
two years of operation with no more than 5 FTE to talk about sharing tools,
information, purpose.
Intensive planning activity went on this area, finalizing the proposal, assembling the list of invitees and sketching out an agenda. Meeting will take place, under the aegis of DLF, at NYU, May 9-10.
1.4 Bring
in or visit with staff of Highwire and Project Muse in order to learn from
their experience and understand their aims.
No activity in this area.
1.5 Communicate
with and educate library staff about purpose of SPO and its services
- develop
website (in tandem with development of DLI site)
- brochure
and paper information (December)
- hold
information meetings with library staff (reference staff, collection
development staff, PR dept, Health Services, Media Union esp librarians or
departments who might have more contact with faculty.) February-March
The brochure has been drafted and is with Pat Hodges, awaiting layout and printing. Design of the web site was finalized and templates created. We are currently completing the content development. Site will be released in mid-April.
1.6 Analysis
and education of staff about issues like copyright, authentication &
access, and other issues that editors are likely to ask about (as determined
though conversations and environmental study)
No formal activity in this area
2 Content
building
2.1 Communicate
with and educate faculty, particularly faculty editors, about purpose of SPO
and its services.
- Rosenblum met with the editors of Michigan Feminist Studies to discuss possible backfile conversion and online publication. They are very interested but also early in their thinking and are talking through issues with the editorial board.
- Rosenblum met with S. Grunitisky, editor of New Currents, a new undergraduate and graduate student journal from the Slavic Department.
- Bonn and Lougee met with David Perlman of the School of Public Health to discuss his interest in starting a new journal about community based public health.
2.2.1 Create
Web environment , searchable text and desired display
- Get
feedback on Word Style Sheets
- Finalize
Quark.dtd
- Build
mapping script to transform content to textclass.dtd
- Transform
Dear Self to textclass.dtd
- Develop
web template
2.2.2 Provide
continuing data transformation support
- Copy
editing: formatting/checking layout of text in Word template
- Data
transformation
- Template
management
- Get
feedback on and modify if necessary templates and quark.dtd as necessary
Philosopher's Imprint has been moved into production. We continue to await the arrival of the second article.
2.3 Support
for The Medieval Review
- Move
TMR from mail robot submission to journal management system
- Facilitate
moving TMR to text class to resolve outstanding issues about URLs and tag set.
Continued working through problems with textclass version of TMR. Completion of move to journal management system still pending contribution of DLPS programming time.
2.4 Support
for the Michigan Quarterly Review
2.4.1 Develop
online system for current publication
- Train
staff on SPO tools and methods necessary for online publication
- Explore
methods for digitizing artwork
- Establish
relationship with Sans Serif to minimize duplicative effort
- Develop
web environment
Held discussions with MQR about most advantageous time to collect files for the current publication. Detemrined it is probably best to get the Quark files after Sans Serif has finalized them.
2.4.2 Digitize
backfile
- Electronic files have been converted to XML.
- Bitonal page images have returned from vendor and are now in QC
- Scanning of MQR backfile continuous tone images is now complete.
- Created database for MQR continuous tone images.
- Designed a sample layout
2.5 Work
on publication opportunities with Slavic Department
2.5.1 Digitize
and put Cross Currents online.
- Resolve
copyright issues (October-November)
- Digitize
and OCR page images (December-February)
- Additional
indexing and encoding (March-April)
- Online
implementation (May)
Preservation has hired a new scanning technician. Cross Currents will be his first scanning project.
2.5.2 Explore
online publication of other publications of the Slavic Department.
No activity in this area.
2.6 Support
for 4DP2
Assist
in completion and submission of proposal to CoE. Work on data transformations
and system building as directions and content emerges.
No activity in this area.
2.7 Provide
support for electronic publication of dissertations as program develops as
needs and directions develop.
No activity in this area.
2.8 Work
with Library staff to identify publication possibilities within their
collections.
The online version of the Special Collections exhibit Joseph Labadie and His Gift to Michigan is in development and will be public soon.
2.9 Miscellaneous
Continued to refine and document rtf to xml transformation process. Also created some flow charts to document process of prepping journal content to go online.
4 Management
system and tools
4.1 Develop
basic management tool for collection of bibliographic data and submission of
completed files.
Done
4.2 Modify
journal management system to support issues-based publishing (currently
supports only article-based publishing)
No new activity in this area. Specifications are overdue and will be a focus of activity in April.
4.3 Specify
system to support peer review process
Work has been delayed pending outcome of resident process
5 Electronic
subscription management
5.1 Assess
authentication user management system as tool to manage permissions for journal
subscribers. Share with editors to garner feedback. Pass feedback on to DLPS
staff.
Done
5.2 Assess
possibilities for charging mechanisms for ACLS and other content
To be done in late April/early May
6 Continue
exploratory work on print on demand
Work continues on a number of fronts in regards to print on demand issues. Sandler, Stephenson, Bonn and members of the preservation staff met to talk about the print on demand process and next steps. Bonn and Sandler met with Grad library collections staff to discuss strategies for collection reprints from MoA. Bonn had identified the books taken for MoA4 from the library stacks so as to make them a candidate for reprints. We also bound two books printed from MoA as a proof of concept and in order to generate feedback about the binding process.
7 Support
for ACLS
7.1 Specify
usage statistics required by ACLS and other publishers.
To be done
7.2 Adapt
existing stat mechanisms to meet publisher needs.
To be done
7.3 Design
ACLS interface
To be done. Project center staff intends to send some mock-ups within the next month.
7.4 Evaluation
of ACLS XML
No new activity in this area
7.5 Liaison
to DLPS digitization/backfile conversion services
Books are now scheduled to arrive May 1. Project staff sent database of candidate volumes. Student workers are now searching to locate records and IDS fo volumes.
8 Transitional
goals
8.1 Release
Directory of Ethnic Organizations
Directory is in production. Corrections continue to flow in and are being routed to Chuck Ransom.Sheppard met with Chuck Ransom to review data entry for the Michigan Ethnic Directory management database.
8.2 Release
Annotated Bibliography of the French Revolution
This project is moving very slowly. SPO has completed the first online version but Amman wants to udertake considerable revision and additions before releasing.
8.3 Complete
and release BMP Index
?
8.4 Release
the Index to the Transcripts of the French Political Trials.
Done
8.5 Finish
MoA4
- Continue
management of project until texts are online
- Analyze
cost data and prepare handbook
- Prepare
final report
Draft of hadbook is nearly complete. Awaiting some charges that have not yet been posted to the account. Also still working with Scott Ward to resolve problems with scanning invoices. Preparation of handbook turned up a number of cost share items not reflected in financial reports. Have been working with Pat Hodges and Scott Ward to resolve those.
8.6 Continue
as liaison to DLPS for Arts of Citizenship, Making of Ann Arbor and the
Saline Historical Photographs project.
No new activity on these projects
9 Miscellaneous Activities
- Interviews for SPO programmer have been completed.
- Staff participated in interview for IMLS librarian
- Rosenblum attended conference on Information Technology hosted by the Center for International Studies.
- Bonn gave a talk on MoA and MoAA at the PLA spring symposium in Chicago
- Bonn met with Vic Rosenberg to discuss a variety of issues related to electronic publishing.