Nathan MacBrien and I have put together a proposal to develop a new series coordinating print publication of scholarly monographs with electronic publication / archiving of underlying primary materials. Briefly, what we envision is a new series in the history of Silicon Valley that combines publication of books in print, with publication on the Web of primary materials created by those research projects.
The aims of the series are:
Preliminary feedback on the idea has been fairly positive, perhaps because it resonates with some ideas Robert Darnton has put forward regarding print and electronic publication of scholarly material.
The project represents an excellent opportunity for the Press to make a name for itself as an innovator in electronic scholarly publishing; for the Library to enhance its reputation as a leader in the field; and for the Library to further expand its archival holdings on Silicon Valley into the digital realm past the creation of digital versions of printed materials.
PROPOSAL FOR NEW DIGITAL PUBLICATION EFFORT
We propose a formal partnership between the Press and the Library to publish a series of combined print/electronic book projects building on the Library's SiliconBase archive and the Press's emerging list in Silicon Valley studies. The partnership's aim would be to combine interpretive texts in traditional book format with the simultaneous electronic release of primary and supplementary archival documents.
This program would allow a book's readers to enter, through a Library-sponsored Web site, a rich array of materials adjunct to the reading of the book itself. Teachers using the book in class could ask students to explore the primary research on which the book is based, thus illuminating the research and writing process. Readers interested in deeper study of particular ideas, people, etc. in the book could explore them on the Web, and authors could include there the kind of detailed material they often want to write but are unable to fit into the flow of the main text.
Up to this point, most ventures into scholarly electronic publishing have used the Web as a substitute for traditional book publishing--for example, the new Mellon-funded series in print-on-demand electronic monographs, or the University of Virginia's (really Jerome McGann's) Dante Gabriel Rossetti archive. Such developments, although exciting, have the effect of placing print and Web publishing in a competitive relationship. By contrast, our strategy would (1) coordinate and capitalize on the strengths of both media in a manner that minimizes competition between them, (2) encourage the archiving of both important historical documents and the results of research conducted by historians and social scientists, and (3) create forums for the review and discussion of the published books, while developing a coordinated, easily accessible knowledge base for future research.
The books published could be based on archival material already housed at SUL (e.g., the Apple, Fuller, or SRI archives), or the archival materials used and research materials generated while researching the book would be donated to the Library. One goal of the program thus would be to obtain primary materials for the Library. In many cases, the holder of the materials would be the book's author him/herself (as in the case of interviews), but in other cases such primary materials might consist of artifacts from a company or site under study, radio or video broadcasts made by or about important figures in the history of technology, and so on. Obviously, not every primary source for a given book could be donated to the Library, but the idea would be to pick projects attached to an archive of materials up for grabs that the Library would want. Thus, the Library would play a refereeing role similar to that of the Press, and projects would have to be "passed" by both entities in order to be part of the program. The books may or may not need some sort of dual imprint. That said, the books would be held to the same intellectual and editorial standards as all Press titles.
The partnership need not be a formal series (with a high-profile series editor, etc.), nor need it be limited to specific academic fields or methodologies. Because of SiliconBase's preexisting infrastructure, and because of the inherent tie-ins between Stanford, the Web, and Silicon Valley as a whole, the program at first would be limited to topics relating to the history and current state of the Valley. Another possibility suggested by Alex Pang is "spaces of innovation" --technologically innovative regions that could be geographical, technological, disciplinary, whatever. Early on, it would be ideal to have a grouping of books from several disciplines (e.g., history of technology, anthropology, sociology, and business) that capitalize on different uses of Web technology. As the project developed, it could branch out in other directions, as the Press and Library see fit....
Books would be expected to be freestanding, that is, fully comprehensible and useful without reference to their companion sites. However, the books and Web sites would need to have an integrated design that would create a particular branding, and the structure of Web sites would have to complement that of the books. Through the use of innovative design elements, readers could be pointed to relevant archival materials at particular points throughout the text.
Students in the history, anthropology, and sociology of Silicon Valley; anyone interested in electronic publishing. At first, the newness of the approach and the possibilities for new organization of primary materials should be very appealing to potential authors. Many authors will likely be excited by the prospect that the Stanford University Libraries are interested in permanently housing their own work. Marketing the project should be relatively easy, give the recent interest in electronic scholarly publishing shown by the NYT, Chronicle, Lingua Franca, etc.
Although the books should sell well, start-up funding will be necessary for Press marketing and design, and mainly (I imagine) for the Library, to fund the labor required for coding and organizing all those documents.