The University of Virginia, known for initiating innovative academic digital-publishing projects, has received a two-year, $635,00 grant from the Mellon Foundation to set up an imprint to publish original digital scholarship in the humanities.
Nancy Essig, director of the UVa. press, told PW that the new imprint plans to release 10 digital publications annually, beginning with two this year. "This is a unique opportunity to experiment in applying the skills and standards of scholarly publishing to electronic projects," she said.
The publications will be focused in the areas of history, architecture and archeology, UVa. Press specialties, and will be published on the Web and on CD-ROMs. Essig said these will be "original, multifaceted, scholarly works, but they will feature different levels of access for scholars, for educational purposes and for general audiences." Essig said the publications will be expected to generate revenue and the imprint will "experiment with site licensing and other cost-recovery models." The imprint will have a five-person staff and the press is currently looking for a candidate to manage it.
