the b
-side
The Michigan Daiy I michigandaily.com I Thursday, December1, 2011
by Lauren Ca
71 JL
iserta // Daily Arts Writer
Exploring the world of University publishing at the
confluence of print and digital mediums
weekend
essentials
Dec.1 to 4
ON STAGE
The University's fa-
vorite innuendo-laden
a cappella group is
back: The G-Men's fall
concert, titled "That's
What G Said," will hit
Rackham Auditorium
tomorrow night. Expect
lots of stirring male
pipes, energetic moves
and several rousing
encores. That's what
well, you get the idea:
The show starts at 8
p.m. Student tickets are
$5 in advance and $7
at the0door.
CONCERT
Chris Cornell, lead
singer of Soundgarden
and Audioslave, has
ditched the amplified
instruments after re-
leasing an acoustic solo
album. Showcasing his
raw yet talented voice,
the grunge pioneer has
gone ontour, playing
re-imagined covers of
songs from his entire
career. He'll be per-
forming at the Michi-
gan Theater on Sunday
at 4 p.m. - tickets are
sold out, so try begging
his groupies.
Tucked away in a corner of
the Shapiro Undergraduate
Library, a bulky and unassum-
ing machine whirrs to life. A
few clicks of a mouse send the
mini assembly line housed within into a fren-
zy while its Plexiglas exoskeleton provides
observers a front-row seat to watch the care-
fully calibrated action.
Seven minutes later, the machine spits out
an entire paperback book.
This isn't astack ofstapled computer pages.
It's a retail-quality product glued
and bound with a semi-gloss full-
color cover that looks like it was
just pulled from a nearby shelf. Still
warmto the touch, the newly mint-
ed School of Social Work textbook
waits to be joined by nine identical
copies, which will soon find their
way into the hands of University
students, all for about $6 a pop.
While book lovers and e-reader
fanatics everywhere enjoy pitting
the established worldofprint media
against the up-and-coming innova-
tions of the digital age, student and
faculty publishers at the University
of Michigan have long been able to
see the inherent fallacy within this
hyped-up conflict.
As a seamless marriage of elec-
tronic convenience and physical
utility, Shapiro's Espresso Book
Machine is a perfect symbol of
the University's ultimate vision:
No matter the format, publishing
should allow scholarly information
to become a volume greater than
the sum of its parts.
PRINT AND BEYOND
The Espresso Book Machine is
operated by MPublishing, which
acts as the Universitys primary
academic publishing umbrella: It encom-
passes the University of Michigan Press, the
Scholarly Publishing Office, Deep Blue (a fac-
ulty repository), the Copyright Office and the
Text Creation Partnership.
The mostrecognizable entity of MPublish-
ing is the University Press, which has more
than 80 years of quality publishing experi-
ence under itsabelt.
Surprisingly, the majority of the work
printed by university presses is for non-local
faculty. Presses tend to focus on developing
texts from only a few specific literary fields,
drawing in authors who study within those
academic disciplines from across the country.
The University Press has historically special-
This is the besi
time ever to be
reader.
-Shana Kimball, MPublis
Head of Publishing Services, Outr
and Strategic Developi
ized in areas such as political science, disabil-
ity studies and ESL.
Though this field-specific focus is a tra-
ditional aspect of all university presses, the
technological development of MPublishing's
services means specialization isngiving wayto
a broad and inclusive publishing environment
for a wide range of scholars.
"About five percent of our author pool is U
of M faculty," said Karen Hill, interim direc-
tor and digital manager of the University
Press. "But we're not excluding them. One of
good representation of your illustrations."
While many faculty members continue
to request print copies of their work, there
is an undeniable sense that the world of
information on paper is slowly finding a new
niche within the publishing structure of the
future. Even Siebers, most of whose works
have been published in print, pointed out
that research and sharing have become a
digital process.
"The curious thing about this process is
that most of the reading that I do, I actually
do online," Siebers said. "I'd say
90 percent - certainly, the vast
majority of what I do, I do online
now, and the only exception
to that is material that doesn't
appear in e-books"
As an author and a reader,
Siebers has recognized a more
holistic trend in the information
industry. Instead of straddling
an extreme divide between the
use of print and digital technol-
ogy, the academic community is
shifting toward a thriving "mul-
timedia" environment.
"It's wrong to think that read-
ing is only reading on a page,"
Siebers said. "When you look
at magazines there's always
illustrations, and having music
and video links on a page just
enhances the experience of read-
ing."
BREAKING NEW GROUND
One of the major milestones
for the University's publish-
ing division was the decision to
unite the University Press and
other smaller publishing units
with the University's MLibrary
under MPublishing in 2009. The
library had traditionally been a
pioneer of digital archiving and dissemina-
tion, as the University was the original home
for the widely read JSTOR journal database,
and their technological experience has had
an undeniable impact on MPublishing's
approach to their goals.
"The University library had been a leader
in the building of digital infrastructure for
libraries," said Shana Kimball, head of pub-
lishing services, outreach and strategic devel-
opment for MPublishing. "So it seemed like if
we were digitizing our own collections and
building these tools and expertise, we could
also think about that for the use of a spectrum
of new scholarly publications."
See PUBLISHING, Page 3B
our goals is to build that author pool and see if
we can't grow that number."
English Prof. Tobin Siebers has pub-
lished multiple textbooks with the Uni-
versity Press, many of which address
disability studies. While his books have
mainly appeared solely in print form,
Siebers found that some forms of digital
publishing, specifically electronic journals,
complement his work well.
"This had to do specifically with illustra-
tions," Siebers said. "Because the cost of color
illustrations is so large, it's almost impossible
to get good print quality. When you publish
in online journals, they can publish the color
illustrations very easily, and so you get a really
FILM
Natalie Wood might
be dead and gone, but
Old Saint Nick lives on
in our hearts. Coming
in to usher the holiday
spirit is the Michigan
Theater's annual show-
ing of "Miracle on 34th
Street" this Sunday at
1:30 p.m. If you can
extract yourself from
studying, there's noth-
ing better on a weekend
afternoon than a movie
about a trial that proves
the existence of Santa
Claus. Free.
CONCEkT
The Ann Arbor Soul
Club turns five this Fri-
day, so come dance the
night away in celebra
tion at the Blind Pig.
Special guest Mr. Fine
Wine will be providing
some smooth birthday
beats and the doors
open at 9:30 p.m.
General admission is $5
and $8 for soul-lovers
under 21.
DESIGN BY KRISTI BEGONJA AND ARJUN MAHANTI
PHOTOS BY ANNA SCHULTE