Eileen GARDINER and Ronald G

Eileen GARDINER and Ronald G. MUSTO Electronic Publication: The State of the Question

The ACLS History E-Book Project was funded in June 1999 with a $3-million grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, plus a smaller grant from The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation. The goals of the project are to assist scholars in the electronic publishing of high-quality works in history, to explore the intellectual possibilities of new technologies, and to help assure the continued viability of history writing in today’s changing publishing environment. It was designed as a cooperative venture among ACLS, five (now eight) scholarly societies, and seven (now ten) university presses to publish in electronic format works of high quality in the field of history, including 85 new books (“frontlist”) and e-book versions of 500 books of major importance to historical studies (retrospective conversion or “backlist”) - works remaining vital to both scholars and students and frequently cited in the literature.

The Project has already met or surpassed most of the original goals for the project. And as it moves into the last six months of the initial finding period, we will report on our current status and present findings regarding the following:

· The university presses and the state of monographic print publishing in the humanities

· Rights and permissions for online publication

· The technology for streamlined online publication

· The libraries as publishers and/or distributors of electronic resources

· Use of electronic resources by students

· The scholar as electronic author

· Promotion, tenure and related professional concerns

· The future of the monograph.

The state of these questions and the answers have changed dramatically in the past four years. The first phase of scholarly electronic publishing, built on the work of individual scholars and their pioneering websites, is now over. The environment is now at hand for a shift to the second phase: of the standardized production, distribution, and evaluation of scholarly work in electronic format. This is an opportunity, but also a necessity at a time when university press publication is increasingly under stress and scholars working in the humanities, both junior and senior, are seeking alternatives and experimenting with different formats for scholarly communication.