Understanding the University Press Segment: Q&A with Paula Barker Duffy, Director, University of Chicago Press
EXTRA: The National Association of College Stores uses a figure that 64 percent of students are not buying all their required course material. How does this affect the university press segment and how is The University of Chicago Press trying to combat this?
DUFFY: Having good systems in place to deliver the required course content online and at a reasonable cost, and the ability to track use of this content so that authors are informed of the ‘classroom use’ of their work and compensated appropriately is a major challenge for all members of the scholarly community. Foundations and organizations like The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Ithaka Harbors Inc. and the Copyright Clearance Center are involved in studying the issue, and managers of the Chicago-based BiblioVault repository of electronic monographs are working to come up with solutions to better serve the needs of libraries and scholars. There is much greater dialogue in recent years between university presses and members of the library community, and I believe there will be innovative solutions that will allow scholars to better track the use of their published work as it goes online. Publishers within and supported by the academy make important contributions to the discussion.