CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The local 2004 Year of the University Press (YUP) celebration kicks off at noon on March 9 (Tuesday) with a behind-the-scenes look at a digital historic maps project at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Paul Arroyo, electronic publisher at the University of Illinois Press, and Nuala Koetter, interim coordinator of the University Library’s Digital Imaging and Media Technologies Initiative, will introduce and discuss “Historical Maps Online,” the joint U. of I. Press/U. of I. Library project to electronically publish the maps that chart the last 400 years of historical development in Illinois and the Northwest Territory. All but nine of the historical maps belong to the University Library; the nine belong to the Newberry Library in Chicago.
The event, which is free and open to the public, will be held in the Commons on the second floor of the Grainger Library, 1301 W. Springfield Ave., Urbana. Historical Maps Online is one in a series of programs that have been planned locally to tie in with the national YUP project, which is sponsored by the Association of American University Presses and the Association of Research Libraries.
Through the national project, libraries around the country are seeking to raise the visibility of presses on campuses by featuring university press works in exhibits, inviting university press authors and publishing professionals as speakers, publishing articles about innovative library-press partnerships in library and campus newsletters and fostering local and national discussions on scholarly publishing with press and library participation. For more information, see www.aaupnet.org/arlaaup.
The local program will highlight how university presses in general and the U. of I. Press in particular contribute to scholarship, general knowledge and cultural expression.
According to Koetter, the coordinator of Historical Maps Online, the project was designed to appeal both to map aficionados and to educational institutions. With assistance from the Newberry Library, the mapping project, which is ongoing, aims to provide a broad spectrum of content, from expert scholarship of mapmakers and mapmaking to general knowledge about cartography.
The mapping project got started in the late 1990s, with an original scanning of 85 maps. Two years ago the Press got involved, and has been helping the Library add maps and some books to the original collection. Various units have collaborated in the project: the Digital Imaging and Media Technology Initiative did the original scanning and metadata collection; the conservation department encapsulated the maps in mylar, in order to keep them safe while scanning; and Arroyo at the Press worked on the original Web site.
During their presentation, Arroyo and Koetter will discuss the decision process in choosing digital file formats and related conservation considerations; how to maintain the integrity of the maps during scanning and allow for updates of the digitized versions in order to preserve access; the difficulties encountered in the creation of the integrated graphical and text database; the educational value of the project and the problems and rewards of inter-institutional and departmental cooperation.
Other events, all free and public, in the local yearlong celebration include:
• April 2, noon, “The Life Cycle of a Book,” a panel of U. of I. Press editors and managers offer an inside view of book publishing; auditorium of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, 501 E. Daniel St., Champaign;
• April 5, noon, William Maxwell, U. of I. English professor, talks about his new U. of I. Press book, “Complete Poems,” a collection of poetry by the Harlem Renaissance poet Claude McKay. McKay was a Jamaican-born poet whose life and poetry were marked by travel and protest. The book includes more than 300 poems, including nearly 100 published for the first time; room 160 English Building, 608 S. Wright St., Urbana;
• May 1-31, an exhibit titled “The Value of University Press Publishing”; Main Library, 1408 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana.
Events planned for the rest of the year will be announced on the program Web site.
For more information contact the local YUP coordinators, Denise Peeler, advertising manager of the U. of I. Press, at dpeeler@uillinois.edu or 217-244-4690, or Paula Watson, director for scholarly communications in the U. of I. Library, at pdwatson@illinois.edu or 217-333-0318.
