Good press: Rice receives HP grant

Good press: Rice receives HP grant

BY DAWN DORSEY
Special to the Rice News

In a vote of confidence for its venture into digital publishing, the newly revived Rice University Press has received a prestigious international grant from Hewlett Packard (HP).

The 2006 HP Digital Publishing for Teaching and Learning Grant was awarded to 14 higher education institutions around the world.

Designed to promote innovations in education through the effective use of digital publishing technologies, the grant includes a cash award of $15,000 and digital publishing equipment valued at more than $58,000.

HENRY

“Being selected for this grant is really exciting,” said Chuck Henry, vice provost and university librarian. “It’s especially important because it coincides with the recent announcement of the future of the new Rice Press.

“The grant gives the press immediate recognition,” he said. “We’re very pleased that HP found this project compelling enough to contribute funding.”

In the grant proposal, Rice University Press: A New Model of Digital Publishing, Henry outlines the goals of the press, including the synergistic benefit it will have for students and faculty.

“Developing a digital press under the auspices of Rice University will create a national model for efficient, open-source publishing with the potential to transform scholarly communication by providing more works of original scholarship at reasonable costs than is presently possible,” Henry wrote. “These digital books will be affordable for all students.No digital book need ever be out of print, and books can be searchable in more sophisticated ways.”

Henry said the high-end, powerful digital publishing technology provided by the grant will help the press’ cause tremendously. Included in the package are a Designjet proofing printer, a large-format printer, two color Laserjet printers, one table PC and digital projector, two all-in-one printers and three Photosmart digital cameras.

The equipment has been received and is in the Digital Media Center in Herring Hall. Transition time should be minimal, Henry said.

“It is pretty intuitive, and our staff is trained, so we shouldn’t have any problems,” he said.

The cash award is a stipend to support the work on the project and cover travel expenses to an HP-sponsored digital publishing community event.

Rice University Press, which expects to print five to seven titles by the end of 2007, will focus initially on art and architectural history titles. Publication in these disciplines is often compromised because reproducing the sharp, high-resolution images needed is prohibitively expensive using convention printing technology.

Currently, the press is assembling a board of directors, and the next step will be to bring together a peer review committee.