digitalculturebooks's blog

Mim Ito recently blogged about the newest release in the Technologies of the Imagination series for which she serves as co-editor with Ellen Seiter. Mimi Ito is a research scientist at the University of California Humanities Research Institute, University of California, Irvine. We reproduce the post from her blog with permission.

In conjunction with the launch of the UM Series in Digital Humanities, the University of Michigan and the Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory (HASTAC) are pleased to announce the UM Press/HASTAC Digital Humanities Publication Prize. The prize will be awarded for an innovative and important project that displays a critical and rigorous engagement in the field of Digital Humanities.

Eligible projects will be peer reviewed with the winner determined by the HASTAC Steering Committee, the general editors and the advisory board of the University of Michigan Press Series in Digital Humanities. The series editors are Julie Thompson Klein (Wayne State University), Tara McPherson (University of Southern California) and Tom Finholt (University of Michigan). The series advisory board members are Cathy Davidson (Duke University), Sidonie Smith (University of Michigan), Daniel Herwitz (University of Michigan), Wendy Chun (Brown University), and Kathleen Fitzpatrick (Pomona College).

For initial consideration, authors should provide via e-mail a prospectus of the completed manuscript or emergent work describing its goals, intended audience, and significance, as well as a C.V. and sample material. Final determination by the prize committee will be based on a review of a completed manuscript or a detailed prospectus, work plan, and sample material for projects.

The prize recipient will be announced on the HASTAC and UM Press websites. The winning submission will be published by the University of Michigan Press in the UM Digital Humanities Series under the digitalculturebooks imprint in print and digital formats.

For questions, please contact the UM Press Acquiring Editor, Tom Dwyer: thdwyer@umich.edu.

We are pleased to announce a new series, digitalhumanities @ digitalculturebooks. The series editors are Julie Thompson Klein (Wayne State University), Tara McPherson (University of Southern California) and Tom Finholt (University of Michigan). The series advisory board members are Cathy Davidson (Duke University), Sidonie Smith (University of Michigan), Daniel Herwitz (University of Michigan), Wendy Chun (Brown University), and Kathleen Fitzpatrick (Pomona College).

The series will provide a forum for ground-breaking and benchmark work in digital humanities. This rapidly growing field lies at the intersections of computers and the disciplines of the arts and humanities, the professions of education and of library and information science, and the fields of media and communications studies, and cultural studies. The purpose of the University of Michigan Digital Humanities Series is to feature rigorous research that advances understanding of the nature and implications of the changing relationship between humanities and digital technologies.

Books, monographs, and experimental formats that define current practices, emergent trends, and future directions will receive priority. Together, they will illuminate the varied disciplinary and professional forms, broad multidisciplinary scope, interdisciplinary dynamics, and transdisciplinary potential of the field.

Works for the series and submissions to be considered for the UM/HASTAC Prize will further the following goals:

• to break new ground by defining and assessing current and emerging methodological and theoretical approaches;
• to benchmark best practices and projects through analysis of their nature, quality, and impact;
• to present leading scholarship on the changing relationship of humanities and technology;
• to  feature best work from leading networks, communities of practice, and innovative practitioners;
• to examine key thematics and problematics of the field;
• to define and examine innovative approaches to digital teaching and learning.

Proposals for the series and the University of Michigan/HASTAC Notable Publication Prize should be sent to Mdigitalhumanities@umich.edu.

For more information about this series, please contact the Acquiring Editor, Tom Dwyer.

Announced on October 23, 2009, MPublishing is a newly formed publishing organization within the University of Michigan Library whose purpose is to align the existing and future publishing activities of the Library with the core strengths and informational needs of the University.

digitalculturebooks is one of several collaborative publishing activities under way between the Press and the Library. In addition to collaborating on the digitalculturebooks imprint, University of Michigan Press titles are being digitized by the Library for inclusion in Hathi Trust, a shared digital repository for the nation's research libraries. Be sure to check out the full list of UMP titles in Hathi Trust, which are freely available for reading and for purchasing in print.

We look forward to continued occasions for collaboration across U-M library units as MPublishing develops.

We're excited to announce the launch of a redesigned digitalculture.org, which seeks to be a portal to enriched books in new media studies and digital humanities. digitalculturebooks strives to create a media-rich context for its titles, and to provide readers options for access—for free online or for sale in print. To promote the broadest possible use and access, the website and books carry Creative Commons licenses.

This imprint and website is a collaborative effort among technologists, project managers, editors, and librarians from the University of Michigan Press and the Scholarly Publishing Office of the University of Michigan Library. Michigan is in the process of bringing together the complementary publishing strengths of these units, along with the Library's Copyright Office and institutional repository, Deep Blue, under the umbrella of MPublishing. Our statement of purpose has just been posted, and we look forward to the continued development of collaborative publishing efforts here at U-M.

To find out more about digitalculturebooks, please see our available titles and read about our digital publishing methods. For more information about our imprint, please contact digital-culture@umich.edu.