0.22 Rotunda: a university press starts a digital imprint  (Page 3/15)

In addition to early decisions about the technical structure of Rotunda publications, we investigated how original digital publications should be delivered. Rotunda staff conducted market research that showed it would be difficult to recover costs by trying to sell a dozen unrelated projects—more subject compatibility would be needed on the model of a traditional publishing program. Focus-group research with librarians and scholars indicated that the Imprint should concentrate on major projects delivered to institutions in coherent subject collections. The acquisitions work of the Imprint began to concentrate on two primary subject areas that were already strengths of the UVa Press: in literature, nineteenth-century literature and culture, and in history, the American founding era. We also identified a niche for the Imprint in publishing critical and documentary editions in digital form, both those created as born-digital projects, and previously published work that could be greatly enhanced by conversion to digital form and by aggregation with similar editions. This was a natural step for us as the UVa Press had a long history of publishing scholarly editions of literary letters as well as several major documentary editions in history. We also found that most of the projects that were being proposed to us, or that we could identify, were scholarly editions.

The first work published by Rotunda was Holly Shulman’s The Dolley Madison Digital Edition (DMDE). The initial installment was released in November 2004. This comprehensive born-digital edition will eventually collect all the known letters of that prodigious correspondent, Dolley Madison, the most influential First Lady of the early republic. As it stands today the edition is complete through 1838, with a total of 1,171 documents, a glossary, biographical entries, and introductory material. Two further installments have been added with more to come. The DMDE was the first work to go through the entire publishing process at the Imprint and was instructive in showing us where traditional publishing skills could be applied and where different skills and training were needed. As a text-based work, the DMDE required traditional copyediting, but also needed more extensive markup than print publications require. Over 300 hours of editorial preparation time at Rotunda were needed for the first installment, primarily for applying XML coding consistently (a new workflow at the DMDE editorial office now makes this work go much more swiftly). Also, as our prototype digital publication, the DMDE required extensive design time to be sure that elements displayed well, that the screen was easy to read and uncluttered, and that the navigation features met the needs of potential users. All of this work provided useful experience for the Rotunda team when other publications were added. The DMDE was well received with write-ups in Publishers Weekly and UVA’s Top News Daily, favorable reviews in Library Journal and Choice , and a commendation from the Society for History in the Federal Government. The Choice reviewer said, “as the first [publication] in the newly created Rotunda collection from the well-respected University of Virginia Press, the Dolley Madison Digital Edition is an auspicious debut. . . Highly recommended.” The commendation from SHFG said “Judged to be an outstanding contribution to furthering history of and in the Federal Government on the basis of significance of subject matter, depth of research, innovative methodology, ease of use, and quality of style.” The University of Virginia alumni magazine recently devoted a long article to Professor Shulman’s work in “Dolley Madison Goes Digital.” (External Link)