0.22 Rotunda: a university press starts a digital imprint  (Page 7/15)

While the Washington Papers edition was in development, we continued conversations with the other editors of the Founding Fathers’ Papers and their publishers about creating a cross-searchable aggregation of the editions. We began to check into the sometimes convoluted rights situations for these editions. In most instances the publisher is the copyright holder and can grant a license to other entities for specified uses. In the case of the Adams Papers, the Massachusetts Historical Society (MHS) was the rights holder, while Harvard University Press was the publisher. James Taylor, editor of the Adams Papers, had already applied to the NEH for funding to create an open access edition to be hosted on the Society’s website, but he was also interested in having his project included in the Rotunda collection. As he wrote us, “It is clear that while the Adams Papers will be a valuable research tool as an individual publication, they will be greatly enhanced by being part of this extraordinary Rotunda collection.” After the Society was awarded the NEH funding in June 2005, James Taylor let his NEH program officer know that he would like to give Rotunda access to the XML files created under the grant. The NEH approved this use, and we entered into an agreement with the Society in December 2005 to include the Adams Papers in Rotunda. The Society separately made an agreement with Harvard University Press to say that Rotunda could include new volumes after the print volume had been available for two years. (A similar “moving wall” provision is required by most publishers to preserve sales of the print editions). The Rotunda technical team worked with the staff of the Adams Papers to provide technical specifications and to recommend vendors. Ondine LeBlanc, MHS Director of Publications, described this process: “The publications department worked closely with Rotunda at the University of Virginia Press in order to convert over 30 previously printed Adams Papers volumes for online delivery (part of the larger, NEH-funded Founding Families , available at www.masshist.org/ff/ ). During that process, the editorial staff learned to produce TEI-compliant XML from original print sources and to transform that XML source text for web delivery.” Staff from the MHS and Harvard University Press proofread the files that came back from the vendor, and MHS staff undertook the work of preparing a cumulative index for the thirty volumes. Rotunda staff prepared a beta version to show at the meetings of the midwinter American Library Association in December 2007 and the American Historical Association in January 2008. Final files were made available to UVa Press in July 2008, and the Rotunda edition was released for sale that November.

Since the UVa Press is part of the University of Virginia, founded by Thomas Jefferson, we took particular interest in including the Jefferson papers in this collection. The Jefferson Papers project had been inaugurated at Princeton University by Julian Boyd. UVa Press shares a connection with Julian Boyd. In the early 1960s he had written a brief manifesto called, “A Suggestion for Establishing a Scholarly Press for Institutions of Higher Learning in Virginia.” As this idea was developed, the University Press of Virginia was created at the University of Virginia in 1963. The name was changed to University of Virginia Press in 2001. Peter Dougherty, appointed director of Princeton University Press in 2005, was very supportive of the idea of creating a digital edition of the Jefferson Papers. He needed to consult with his Board and the editors of the edition before making a commitment to allow another publisher to prepare a digital edition. After a long negotiation, the UVa Press signed an agreement with Princeton University Press in February 2007. Afterwards Peter Dougherty and the editors of the two Jefferson series, Barbara Oberg and Jefferson Looney, came to Charlottesville for a planning meeting with the UVa Press managers. At the request of the editors, we agreed to include the four hundred illustrations from the print edition, knowing this would entail clearing all the rights again and obtaining new digital images where possible. Since the Jefferson Papers editorial project was not able to devote as much staff time to collaborating on the digital edition as the Washington and Adams Papers had, Rotunda staff spent several months obtaining the permissions and illustrations. We aimed to keep the involvement of the Jefferson Papers editors to a minimum until we reached a stage for checking the digital files. At that point the editors and a summer intern spent considerable time in proofreading display of the documents in the Rotunda format. Work on the Jefferson digital edition took two years, resulting in demonstration of a beta edition at the January 2009 meeting of the American Historical Association. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson Digital Edition was officially released on Jefferson’s birthday, April 13. Princeton University Press and the University of Virginia both made announcements. http://www.virginia.edu/uvatoday/newsRelease.php?id=8288 , http://press.princeton.edu/blog/2009/04/06/rotunda-launches-a-digital-edition-of-the-papers-of-thomas-jefferson/ When we demonstrated this edition at a Board meeting of the Jefferson Papers Retirement series, Charles Cullen, a former editor of the Jefferson Papers and early advocate of digital projects, remarked how surprising it was that a university press had been the one to create digital editions of the Founding Fathers’ Papers. He later wrote me, “In my day the university presses were loathe to consider making the editions available in digital form for fear of hurting sales and also because no schemes had been proposed that would bring funding to the projects or the presses to help continue the work of editing and printing the letterpress volumes. . . When you began to open the door, or even invite movement in this direction, I was extremely pleased and considered it almost revolutionary.”