University of California Press Blog

Book Trailer for Insomniac by Gayle Greene

The latest installment in the Press's series of book trailers is for Insomniac by Gayle Greene.   In this revelatory book, Gayle Greene offers a uniquely comprehensive account of this devastating and little-understood condition. She has traveled the world in a quest for answers, interviewing neurologists, sleep researchers, doctors, psychotherapists, and insomniacs of all sorts. What comes of her extraordinary journey is an up-to-date account of what is known about insomnia, providing the information every insomniac needs to know to make intelligent choices among medications and therapies.

Global Pentecostalism: Documentary Video Excerpt

Donald Miller, executive director of the USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture and director of the USC School of Religion, co-wrote Global Pentecostalism: The New Face of Christian Social Engagement with Tetsunao Yamamori.

This video highlights some of the documentary footage that Miller shot during research visits to more than 20 countries.

Additional clips and interviews are available on a DVD included with the book. Video edited by: Mira Zimet

UC Press Journal Honored by Melville Society

The Cohen Prize committee of The Melville Society has named Professor Jeffory Clymer the winner of the 2007 Cohen Prize for his article, "Property and Selfhood in Herman Melville's Pierre," which was published in Nineteenth-Century Literature, Volume 61.2 (September 2006). The Cohen Prize is awarded annually for the best published article or book chapter on Melville. For more information on the article, click here.

Robert Creeley's Selected Poems Reviewed in New York Times

August Kleinzahler wrote an insightful tribute to Robert Creeley's Selected Poems, 1945-2005 in Sunday's New York Times Book Review:

"For readers coming to Creeley's work for the first time, the format of a "Selected Poems" is the best way in, and this new "Selected," supplanting a 1991 edition, is well chosen by Benjamin Friedlander. . . . Robert Creeley was one of those artists who refused to let himself be bored by his own art. The reader will find very little to be bored by in this brilliant, essential volume."

Read the full review here.

UC Press Presents...the Spring 2008 Film Round-Up

In honor of the 2008 Academy Awards, we've rounded up a list of our latest film-related books for your reading enjoyment:

Fight Pictures: A History of Boxing and Early Cinema, by Dan Streible (forthcoming in April)
Before there were Pay-Per-View prizefights, there was the first filmed sports competition—the Corbett-Fitzsimmons fight of 1897. Fight Pictures discusses how this and other early filmed boxing matches fused and transformed the worlds of spectator sports and the media, setting the stage for modern sports culture.

The Decline of Sentiment: American Film in the 1920s (forthcoming in April), by Lea Jacobs
Many films in the early 20th century were saturated with syrupy moments of triumph, tragedy, and passion. In The Decline of Sentiment, Lea Jacobs argues that the public’s taste for sentiment began to ebb after World War 1; scenes that once caused goosebumps began to seem a bit corny and unrealistic. This shift against the dominant cinematic style encouraged the development of other genres like comedy, adventure and suspense.

Cinema and Fascism: Italian Film and Society, 1922-1943, by Steven Ricci
In this book, Steven Ricci examines the often-ignored political and cultural legacy of Italian film during the fascist era. Rather than using film solely for totalitarian propaganda, the government more subtly influenced the masses by making films that created a sense of national cohesion. Ricci also looks at film’s expanding role in Italian popular culture, and the relationship between Italian and American filmmaking during this period.

Hollywood in the Neighborhood: Historical Case Studies of Local Moviegoing, edited by Kathryn Fuller-Seeley
This collection of essays from various scholars chronicles how going to the movies arrived at “a theater near you” and became an essential part of modern life. From traveling shows to small-town theaters, Hollywood in the Neighborhood illuminates the fascinating history of one of our favorite pastimes.

Other recent Film Studies books from UC Press:

Canyon Cinema: The Life and Times of an Independent Film Distributor, by Scott MacDonald

Uncanny Bodies: The Coming of Sound Film and the Origins of the Horror Genre, by Robert Spadoni

How the West Was Sung: Music in the Westerns of John Ford, by Kathryn Kalinak

Mining the Home Movie: Excavations in Histories and Memories, by Karen L. Ishizuka and Patricia R. Zimmermann

Playing to the World’s Biggest Audience: The Globalization of Chinese Film and TV, by Michael Curtin

Body Shots: Early Cinema’s Incarnations, by Jonathan Auerbach

What Publishers Talk About When They Talk About Content Part II: Reflections from TOC2008

The themes at O'Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference 2008 (TOC)  were similar to those at PSP, which I blogged about a week ago in "What Publishers Talk about When They Talk about Content." TOC did have some new spins on these themes, and there were a few memorable sessions and quotes that are worth relating here.

1. “The biggest threat to publishers is obscurity, not piracy.” —Bill Burger, Copyright Clearance Center. Kirk Biglione of Medialoper continued the theme in his session titled “DRM, Digital Content, and the Consumer Experience: Lessons Learned from the Music Industry.” I was so taken by this presentation on digital rights management, that I’m going to devote another entire blog entry to it. Stay tuned, but check out the powerpoint.

2. “Content is not King. Context is not King. Contact is King.” —Douglas Rushkoff. Social networking was also very big at this conference, especially the idea that readers use content to connect with other people. University presses have always understood that our content started, finished, or continued a conversation. How can capitalize on the opportunities of the digital age to provide even more such opportunities for scholars?

3. Passionate users tend to be experts, and it’s the feedback loop on their content makes them care. —Kathy Sierra, author of Creating Passionate Users. Although Sierra’s presentation was a little thin, it did get me thinking. Scholars are the ultimate in experts, so how can we provide them with the feedback loop and make them passionate users of our content?

4. Changing organizational structures for the digital age is difficult and painful. —Kenneth Brooks, Cengage Learning. Okay, he didn’t say it that way, but the underlying pains quickly became clear during his talk. In an informal conversation after the session, a fellow university press colleague expressed puzzlement that most of university press “digital publishing” has ended up in marketing. There was good reason for this early on, but the time has come that it needs to begin to infiltrate other departments. Among university presses, our production departments will need to acquire new skills, and we need to move many of the tasks that somehow fell on the shoulders of our marketing staff into our production departments. I’m certainly not proposing that we follow in the footsteps of a corporate publishing giant, but is there anything we can learn from the scorched-earth methods of Cengage so that our staff can be happy about these transitions? Or is change always difficult?

5. Pre-publishing and community-based pricing models. —Bob Pritchett, Logos Bible Software. Unlike a traditional book or journal product, new digital products require a significant investment. The models that Logos employs to make sure that there is a market for its products could be a helpful way for university presses to venture into this new territory with less risk.

6. Find ways to monetize around content—and that doesn’t mean advertising. —Tim O'Reilly. In his keynote, O'Reilly brainstormed revenue models built around content (even free content). Later in the day,  Scott Gray (O’Reillys School of Technology) argued  for publishers to create essential, niche products that can be priced high to maximize revenue. One of their methods has been to add an educational component around their content. For me, this was a lightbulb. A group of us here at UC Press have been talking about the University as Publisher; here is O’Reilly taking the view of Publisher as University. I think we can learn much from what the School of Technology  is doing. Note that O’Reilly has considered opening up their learning platform for others to use.

Laura Cerruti is Director of Digital Content Development at UC Press.

Art Is Life

Together, Gerald and Sara Murphy created a life as unexpected and beautiful as any artistic masterpiece. Their letters, even in old age, reveal their deep-rooted and tender devotion. Their imagination and generosity, planted in the rich creative soil of 1920s Paris, inspired and supported the artistic scene of that singular time and place. In Making It New, Deborah Rothschild resurrects the Murphys’ charmed era in a collage of essays, letters, photographs, and paintings.

 

What Scholarly Publishers Talk About When They Talk About Content: Reflections from PSP 2008

The theme for this year's annual conference of the Professional/Scholarly Publishing (PSP) division of The Association of American Publishers (AAP)  was “Interactivity 2008: Communities, Content, Connectivity.” I noticed nine distinct themes running throughout the sessions. They are as follows:

1.    Social-networking. People are using content to interact with others. In the context of that interaction, content creates identity, particularly online and particularly as personal and professional spaces merge. Publishers need to be in the conversation.

2.    User-generated content. Users now expect to participate. Publishers risk missing out on the opportunities, not only to enrich core content but to capitalize on the added value that users bring to the content. (Example: Sermo)

3.    The New Peer Review. Publishers should consider integrating new, democratic methods of peer review. New methods of quality review may never fully replace traditional peer review, but publishers need to be aware of new ways that users are determining the quality and usefulness of content. This includes voting, search engine optimization, impact (citations), commenting, referrals, and head-to-head competition (Example: Helium).

4.    eBooks. We are reaching the tipping point for ebooks. If it's not online, it doesn't exist to the new generation of students. Publishers may also want to integrate ebook content with other kinds of content, especially journals. The argument for XML is also growing as users begin to read this type of content using devices such as cell phones, which need the flexibility of XML text.

5.    Consistent User Experience. When librarians talked about digital access to traditional publications such as ebooks and ejournals, they complained about the amount of time they spend teaching their users to use a new and different platform. They called for fewer more consistent platforms and discouraged all but the largest publishers from building their own platforms.

6.    Complementary Tools. Publishers should not try to compete with robust search and social networking tools or hardware and software, such as FaceBook, YouTube, and Kindle. Nevertheless, it's important that publishers understand these new tools and figure out a way to make their content work with and on these tools.

7.    Beyond Text. The next generation of students and researchers will NOT be text-centric. Whether or not we want to accept it, the next generation of students will not prioritize text as a learning tool. Audio, Video, Static, Images, and 3-Dimensional spaces need to be integrated with text into the development of new digital publications. (Example: Vectors)

8.    Marketing As a Service. New technology enables marketing to become a dialog rather than a monologue across both online and offline channels. Marketing needs to have methods for tracking the dialog, responding to it with automated yet customized outreach and follow up, and recording it for future use. By making marketing more relevant for the individual customer, the organization can build trust behind the brand.

9.    New Organizational Structures. Publishers need new kinds of staff, new kinds of cross-genre and cross-channel organizational structures, and new kinds of job descriptions in marketing and product development. All staff need to understand the synergy between offline and online. All staff need to be more focused on up-front analysis and responding on the fly to the user.

I have also just returned from O'Reilly's Tools for Publishing Change conference. Stay tuned for more thoughts and impressions.

Laura Cerruti is Director of Digital Content Development at UC Press.

"Earning Every Word"

George Oppen won a Pulitzer Prize for his poetry, but he characterized himself as more of an “explorer or mathematician" than a traditional poet. Oppen's writing was a means of discovery and not a means of expression—through revision, he distilled the truth from the words. He did not preach about issues like politics, art, and self, but he always addressed them and came to his own conclusions. In Selected Prose, Daybooks and Papers, Stephen Cope compiles Oppen's previously unpublished notes, essays and observations to reveal a man who could live a sincere and honest life because his decisions and actions were purely his own.

George Oppen's Selected Prose, Daybooks, and Papers was reviewed in the February 11 issue of The Nation. Read the full review here.

The Secret Lives of Owls

For many California city dwellers, cackling ravens, scavenging seagulls and waddling pigeons dominate the birdwatching scene. Venture to a park at dusk or spend a weekend camping in the woods, however, and we may catch a glimpse an elusive, almost supernatural owl starting its nocturnal routine. Those of us who sleep through the night may not know it, but California is home to over a dozen owl species. In his book, Field Guide to Owls of California and the West, Hans Peeters details the features, activities and habitats of each species, and reveals the secrets of how to locate, identify and observe them. Easy to read and full of fascinating anecdotes, Field Guide to Owls of California and the West illuminates the majestic, oddly human lives of these mysterious creatures, and may spark owl-watching addictions in budding naturalists and seasoned explorers alike.