From: Michael Zeoli <[log in to unmask]> Date: Mon, 29 Jul 2013 13:19:26 +0000 I was very disappointed that the surveyors published findings without checking facts and contacting important sources. YBP Library Services (aka Yankee Book Peddler) was mentioned more than once as a reason some university presses are reluctant to publish dissertations. YBP was also cited as a source for (incorrect) information on university library collecting habits in regard to dissertations. In their conclusion, the surveyors write: "It is unclear if these comments [by university press directors regarding YBP] represent a minority view or are shared by a larger group. This is an area for future study." None of the researchers contacted YBP Library Services. I wonder how many collection development and acquisitions librarians were contected? I cannot comment on university press policy towards ETDs, but I can clarify the role of YBP in the distribution of content and the relative success of ETD-based monographs in the academic library market. It is substantially different from what has been portrayed in the CRL article. The topic of academic library purchasing of dissertations has been debated at length on LibLicense. Academic librarians and publishers have weighed in, but the whole truth lies beyond what has been expressed there. A misunderstanding developed from the loose throwing around of the term 'dissertation' and then attaching the term inexactly to Approval Plans. Approval Plans are used in one form or another by most academic libraries in North America and many other parts of the world. Approval Plans underpin much collection development work for books. These plans involve a department of highly skilled and experienced selectors who 'profile' in-hand each academic book. Mechanical means are also used to capture standard bibliographic information. The Approval Plan selectors answer thousands of specific questions each week generated as part of library Approval Plan profiles. The taxonomy and questions have come from libraries over many decades (they were not dreamt up in a back room at YBP). Among the more than 120 pages of taxonomy YBP uses in building library Approval Plan profiles are the terms: . Revised Dissertation . Unrevised Dissertation There is no stand-alone term "dissertation". This is an important distinction. Too many discussions on dissertations overlook this distinction. It is a critical one in library collection development. Most libraries will not purchase an *unrevised dissertation*. There have been a few exceptions (the University of the West Indies Press used to publish many *unrevised dissertations* on topics related to the Caribbean which were unique sources of information; libraries would make an exception for these unrevised dissertations on Approval Plans). There is another important distinction. Libraries recognize that part of the mission of the university press is to support scholarship that might not find support among commercial presses. The UPs routinely publish *revised dissertations* and libraries collect them fairly strongly. The presses provide much editorial direction and by the time the*revised dissertation* appears, it may in fact bear little resemblance to the original dissertation. Let me offer some facts: In 2010, among publishers handled by YBP, university presses published 720 Revised Dissertations. On average YBP sold 86 copies. That same year these presses published 10,021 books total; on average, YBP sold 89 copies. There also appeared 13 Unrevised Dissertations - YBP sold just 21 copies on average. During the same year, commercial presses published 1,153 Revised Dissertations. YBP sold just 39 copies on average. They published 89 Unrevised Dissertations and YBP sold just 9 copies on average. This is persuasive evidence that University Press publications are valued - and valued above commercial press titles - by academic libraries (keeping in mind that most STM content is not published by UPs). As a specific example, in 2010 Penn State University Press published 77 new titles. 58% of YBP sales were made on auto-ship Approval Plans, i.e. no specific order was placed by libraries. There were 8 Revised Dissertations (no Unrevised Dissertations). 52% of the sales of these titles were made on auto-ship Approval Plans. I've traced the publishing and sales rates of Revised Dissertations back to 2004. Each year since then more Revised Dissertations have been published and the average number of copies sold has remained stable. Having written many Approval Plans over 15 years, I know that libraries do not punish this category of books anymore than others, at least not when published by university presses. Libraries apply various Approval Plan filters to all titles. Hundreds of other elements weigh in the balance that will ultimately decrease or increase sales. A Choice review or New York Review of Books review or an award will boost sales. Autobiographies, Personal Narratives, Reprints and Journal Monographs are just a few of the factors that guarantee much lower sales. Many factors weigh in the relative success of a title based on a dissertation. Academic libraries as well as academic book vendors are getting tarred unfairly in this discussion. Books based on dissertations may sell less well than other types of monographs outside of the academic library market, which typically represents 20-25% of university press sales. Incomplete reporting on sources of information in studies like the one in CRL perpetuate untruths and further damages the publishing environment for young scholars. These untruths are then perpetuated anecdotally in other publications, e.g. Ry Rivard's piece in Inside Higher Ed last week. It would have been easy to pick up the phone to contact YBP. We would glad have provided numbers in support of this survey. The old Josh Billings line comes to mind: "It ain't what you don't know that gets you in trouble. It's what you think you know for sure, but just ain't so." Michael PS. I agree with the problem Rick Anderson indicated of mixing journals and monographs. I also agreed with his observations on this topic in The Scholarly Kitchen last week. ************************************** Michael Zeoli VP, Strategic eContent Development & Partner Relations YBP Library Services 999 Maple Street Contoocook, New Hampshire 03229 http://www.ybp.com [log in to unmask]