Author: UHP Sales

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded the University of Hawaiʻi a $90,000 grant to digitize 100 out-of-print University of Hawaiʻi Press books for open access.

The project is part of the Humanities Open Book Program, a joint initiative between the Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).

“We’re grateful to the Mellon Foundation and the NEH for supporting our open-access initiatives,” said Trond Knutsen, UH Press digital publishing manager. “Now, with the advent of digital technology, these works can become available to a new generation of readers around the world.”

UH Press selected the 100 titles—representing fields such as Asian studies, Pacific studies, linguistics, anthropology, and history—based on their contemporary scholarly relevance, historical significance, and practical value for teaching and research purposes.

“This initiative will be an enormous contribution to the advance of scholarship globally, but particularly for colleagues and students in places in Asia and the Pacific where libraries are inadequate and access to printed scholarly sources is difficult,” said Barbara Watson Andaya, chair of the UH Mānoa Asian studies program.

Revitalizing UH Press’s backlist

Beginning in 2018, the digitized titles will be hosted on a custom open-access portal where readers will be able to download them in EPUB and PDF formats. A print-on-demand option will also be offered for select titles.

“We hope this project will be only the beginning of a long-term effort to revitalize UH Press’s backlist,” said UH System President David Lassner. “This project will magnify the reach and influence of scholarly work done here at the University of Hawaiʻi, and support educational and cultural initiatives in the Asia and Pacific regions.”

UH Press currently offers more than 800 titles online through library e-book vendors, and more than 350 scholarly monographs through Hawaiʻi Scholarship Online, a partnership with Oxford University Press and University Press Scholarship Online.

“As stewards of scholarship, we find it important to keep our books widely accessible,” said Joel Cosseboom, UH Press interim director and publisher. “This grant will move us forward in disseminating knowledge while also highlighting our incredible backlist, which includes some of the best research among university presses.”

UH Press, which is celebrating 70 years of publishing, is a member of the Association of American University Presses and the Hawaiʻi Book Publishers Association.

About The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Founded in 1969, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation endeavors to strengthen, promote, and, where necessary, defend the contributions of the humanities and the arts to human flourishing and to the well-being of diverse and democratic societies by supporting exemplary institutions of higher education and culture as they renew and provide access to an invaluable heritage of ambitious, path-breaking work. Additional information is available at mellon.org.

The University of Hawaiʻi Press now publishes the new, open-access resource for Hawaiian scholars, Palapala: a journal for Hawaiian language and literature.

The entirety of Palapala volume 1, issue 1, which includes contemporary research in both Hawaiian and English, is freely available at the UH Press website.

“We are honored to offer, through a collaboration with the UHlibrary and the support of the university, an online journal of such scholarly importance to Hawaiʻi,” said Joel Cosseboom, UHPress interim director.

Palapala joins UH Press’s extensive list of Hawaiian studies titles, including The Hawaiian Journal of History, Kanaka ʻŌiwi Methodologies and the Hawaiian Dictionary. It is the first peer-reviewed Hawaiian language journal to be published exclusively online.

“In spite of a vast and complex body of literature written in Hawaiian and a growing number of speakers, there has not been, until now, an academic journal dedicated to either the study of the language or the literature produced in it,” said Palapala editor Jeffrey “Kapali” Lyon of the UH Mānoa Department of Religion.

“Palapala is intended to fill that gap as a peer-reviewed journal that allows scholars of Hawaiian from around the globe to present the results of their research through a centralized, scholarly archive dedicated to cherishing, preserving and advancing our knowledge of the native language of Hawaiʻi nei,” Lyon said.

The inaugural issue also features reprints from the Hawaiian alphabet, first published in 1822, and an anonymous 1857 account about translating the Bible into Hawaiian.

“We are excited to publish the first issue of Palapala,” said Pamela Wilson, UH Press journals manager. “This journal truly aligns with our mission to be a Native Hawaiian place of learning and an indigenous-serving institution.”

Palapala editorial board, submission guidelines and more

Palapala receives support from UH Mānoa’s UH Press and the following departments: College of Arts & Humanities, Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge, College of Languages, Linguistics and Literature and UH Hilo’s Ka Haka ʻUla O Keʻelikōlani, College of Hawaiian Language.

The journal’s editorial board includes UH faculty members Joseph “Keola” Donaghy, kuʻualoha hoʻomanawanui and Hiapokeikikāne K. Perreira, as well as ʻŌiwi Parker Jones of the University of Oxford. UH Mānoa graduate student Jane Au will serve as managing editor for the 2018 volume, and UH alumna Keiko “Kiele” Gonzalez will continue as the journal’s copyeditor.

Palapala submissions guidelines, print requests and more details may be found at the UH Press website.

Three open-access journals for language scholars will be made available through University of Hawaiʻi Press.

UH Press, publisher of scholarly journals and books since 1947, will assist in making the content of Language Documentation and Conservation (LD&C), the Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society (JSEALS) and Palapala: a journal for Hawaiian language and literature widely accessible online.

Through a long-standing partnership with UH Press, Language Documentation and Conservation is exclusively available in electronic format. LD&C is edited by Nicholas Thieberger from the University of Melbourne and sponsored by the National Foreign Language Resource Center.

In addition, UH Press assists the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society in the publication of their journal online. Edited by Mark Alves from Montgomery College, JSEALS adds to the language and linguistics journals available from UH Press, which also include Oceanic Linguistics.

The first issue of Palapala is set to arrive in March 2017. This open-access journal, edited by Jeffrey (Kapali) Lyon at the UH Mānoa Department of Religion, receives support from UH Press and the following departments:

• College of Arts and Humanities, UH Mānoa
• Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge, UH Mānoa
• College of Languages, Linguistics and Literature, UH Mānoa
• Ka Haka ʻUla O Keʻelikōlani, College of Hawaiian Language, UH Hilo

The editorial boards for all three open-access, peer-reviewed journals include UH faculty.

“We are delighted to present such high-quality digital content to the public—be they students, translators or simply curious readers,” said Pamela Wilson, UH Press journals manager.

The open-access journals join approximately 75 new books and 22 journals UH Press plans to publish in 2017. The press also offers more than 800 titles annually through library e-book vendors.

“UH Press has a long history of providing educators with language materials for the classroom,” said Joel Cosseboom, UH Press interim director. “Through these new open-access journals and our digital hosting platforms, language scholars may access the content from anywhere there is an internet connection.”

More information about the journals, including journal submission guidelines, is available online. New journal content is also posted regularly on the UH Press journals blog.