Scholarly collection now freely available digitally

A small trove of scholarly books from the Brandeis University Press is now freely available in multiple digital forms from the university's Institutional Repository thanks to an open access partnership with the University Press of New England and Dartmouth College.

A total of 28 books are now available in HTML, PDF and -- when possible -- e-book formats from the institutional repository, and the collection will continue to expand, according to Vice Provost and University Librarian John Unsworth. 

"Open Access is good for universities and the world. It makes scholarship easier to find and more accessible, including to people who may not be able to afford it," Unsworth said. "It's a return to the mission of university presses: To make scholarship as widely accessible as possible."

Titles in the Brandeis collection include Stephen Whitfield's "In Search of American Jewish Culture," Walter Laqueur's "Generation Exodus: The Fate of Young Jewish Refugees from Nazi Germany," and Harriet and Moshe Hartman's "Gender and American Jews: Patterns in Work, Education, and Family in Contemporary Life."

Like most other institutional repositories, the Brandeis repository is organized in "communities" that reflect the academic and administrative structures of the university,  with Brandeis University Press as one such community. All of the titles in the collection were first published in print and all are still under copyright.

As the publishing industry transitions from print to digital, the University Press of New England plans to continue to make books freely available online as part of its commitment to advance scholarship by disseminating knowledge and participating in the technological innovations that make information widely accessible.

“UPNE’s contribution to continuing scholarship is to ensure that the content of our books is freely and easily obtainable,” said UPNE Director Mike Burton. “We want to disseminate this scholarship as widely as possible and going forward we will regularly make our books available via our open access initiative.”

Categories: Arts, General, Research

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