From: Sean Andrews <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Mon, 13 Feb 2012 11:42:57 -0600

Following from this morning's story in IHE on this new NITLE/CLIR
initiative called ANVIL

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/02/13/anvil-academic-aims-provide-platform-digital-scholarship

http://www.nitle.org/help/anvil.php

I thought this might be of interest to members of the list.  The
release below can be accessed on NITLE's website here:

http://www.nitle.org/live/news/195-clir-and-nitle-to-launch-digital-academic

February 13, 2012

Organizations partner to form Anvil Academic, a digital publisher for
the humanities. Anvil will focus on publishing new forms of
scholarship that cannot be adequately conveyed in the traditional
monograph.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Washington, D.C. and Georgetown, Texas) The Council on Library and
Information Resources (CLIR) and the National Institute for Technology
in Liberal Education (NITLE) announce the formation of Anvil Academic,
a digital publisher for the humanities. Anvil will focus on publishing
new forms of scholarship that cannot be adequately conveyed in the
traditional monograph.

“Increasingly, research in the humanities is dependent on large data
sets and involves sophisticated algorithms and visualizations in the
execution of that research and in the construction of the products of
scholarship. Anvil will capture the environment in which this research
is conducted: a linked ecology of scholarly expression, data, and
tools of analysis that will over time become itself a place for new
knowledge discovery,” said CLIR President Chuck Henry.

Works published through Anvil will be available through Creative
Commons licenses on the Web and as apps on portable devices. The title
production system will be developed jointly by NITLE and CLIR for use
by other institutions, each of which would have the opportunity to
publish under its own imprint. It is expected that Anvil will publish
its first title in late 2012.

All of Anvil’s scholarly works will conform to the standards and
protocols articulated by the Digital Public Library of America; Anvil
will also work closely with the technical requirements of Europeana
and Open Access Publishing in the European Network (OAPEN) guidelines.

“We will be developing not only new technological paradigms, but new
paradigms for defining and evaluating credible scholarly discourse,
and we will be thoroughly documenting, in as open a fashion as
possible, our process, our progress, our thinking, and our vision,”
said Henry.

“An important part of the Anvil experiment will be developing and
testing new revenue models,” said NITLE Executive Director Joey King.
“Our current models, which rely heavily on institutional subsidies,
author subventions, and revenue from sales of printed books, are not
proving to be sustainable. With Anvil, we intend to explore
alternative paths to sustainability as rigorously as we explore new
publishing models.”

The program received startup funding from the Brown Foundation, Inc.,
in Houston, Texas. Stanford University, the University of Virginia,
Washington University in St. Louis, Bryn Mawr College, Amherst
College, Middlebury College, and Southwestern University will also
provide funds and staffing. Anvil Academic Publishing will work
closely with innovative programs developed by the University of
Michigan, especially MPublishing, and draw on Johns Hopkins
University’s exemplary experience with digital humanities project
development.

NITLE and CLIR will enlist additional publishers, scholarly societies,
librarians, administrators, and faculty from member schools to
participate in planning and developing Anvil-forged college and
university publishing enterprises. Publishers or collaborators who are
interested in collaborating in this effort should contact Anvil
Editor-in-Chief Fred Moody ([log in to unmask]).

Anvil’s Board of Directors includes

* Edward Ayers, President, University of Richmond

* Sam Black, Attorney, Washington, D.C.

* Charles Henry, President, CLIR, and Co-Chair of the Board

* Michael Keller, University Librarian, Publisher, Highwire, Stanford University

* Shana Kimball, Interim Head, MPublishing, University of Michigan

* W. Joseph King, Executive Director, NITLE, and Co-Chair of the Board

* Fred Moody, Program Officer for Libraries and Scholarly
Communication, NITLE; Editor-in-Chief, Anvil Academic Publishing

* Stephen G. Nichols, James M. Beall Professor of French and
Humanities Emeritus, and Research

* Professor, Department of German and Romance Languages, Johns Hopkins
University

* Katherine Rowe, Chair, English Department, Bryn Mawr College

* Michael Roy, L. Douglas and Laura J. Meredith Dean of Library and
Information Services, and Chief Information Officer, Middlebury
College

* Elliott Shore, Chief Information Officer and Professor of History,
Bryn Mawr College

* Andrew Stauffer, Director, NINES, Department of English, University
of Virginia

* Gary Wihl, Dean of Arts and Sciences, Washington University, St. Louis

###

About the Council on Library and Information Resources

CLIR is an independent, nonprofit organization that forges strategies
to enhance research, teaching, and learning environments in
collaboration with libraries, cultural institutions, and communities
of higher learning. (clir.org)

About the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education

The National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education helps
liberal arts colleges integrate inquiry, pedagogy, and technology.
Established in 2001 with support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation,
NITLE is the key organization for liberal arts institutions seeking to
use technology strategically to advance the liberal-arts mission.