September 20, 2010

JHU Press and Project MUSE launch e-book initiative

Project MUSE, the acclaimed online collection of scholarly journals managed by the Johns Hopkins University Press, has announced a new initiative to incorporate scholarly book content into its research platform and offerings to libraries. Beginning next year, e-book collections will be available alongside MUSE journal collections, with an integrated discovery environment that allows for browsing and searching journal and book content side by side.

The e-book program, called Project MUSE Editions, will offer titles published by the JHU Press as well as a growing number of participating publishers, including Baylor University Press, Brookings Institution Press, ELT Press, Indiana University Press, Kent State University Press, Penn State University Press, Purdue University Press and University of Illinois Press. A pioneering collaboration between the JHU Press and the university’s Milton S. Eisenhower Library that began in 1995, Project MUSE currently publishes online more than 450 journals from more than 100 not-for-profit scholarly presses.

“For 15 years, MUSE has successfully brought together publishers and libraries to develop a sustainable, innovative model for digital scholarly publishing,” said Dean J. Smith, director of Project MUSE. “Our future lies in leveraging our trusted relationships with both our library customers and participating presses into new product offerings that recognize the shared challenges faced by both these constituencies,” he said. “And our user community will benefit greatly from the integrated research opportunities presented by putting university press book content online alongside MUSE’s well-respected journal collections.”

For more about Project MUSE Editions and the JHU Press, go to www.press.jhu
.edu.