The Demise of the University of Missouri Press
Monday, May 28, 2012 at 4:06PM Timothy M. Wolfe, the president of the University of Missouri, announced last Thursday that the university will be shutting down its press and laying off the ten people who work there.
Provost Brian Foster explained that the university is hoping to find new ways to invest in scholarly communication: "Technological changes have turned media up on their head, and that's turning scholarly communication on its head," he said. "It's more than publishing a book; it's a much broader change. Communication," he said, is "central to successful research, but given how the system is in such fundamental change, we just don't know where it's going." Wouldn't it be better to wait and consider ways adapt the press to these technological changes than to do away with it?
My immediate concern was who would have possession of UMP books after the closure, who will help with the marketing of recently published books, and who will write royalties checks for my fellow UMP authors and me. But the more I sit with this news, the more troubled I am about the wider implications. Here are just a few of the titles in the fall 2012 catalogue: From Missouri: An American Farmer Looks Back a memoir by Thad Snow; Play Me Something Quick and Devilish: Old-Time Fiddlers in Missouri by Howard-Wight Marshall (I'm ordering this one!); and Strong Advocate: The Life of a Trail Lawyer, by Thomas Strong, one of the most successful trial lawyers in Missouri's history. Where will those doing scholarship on such topics go to publish their work? Will the loss of this venue discourage folks from researching Missouri history and culture?
Please write to Tim Wolfe and let him know he needs to rescind his order to close the press:
Office of the President
321 University Hall
Columbia, MO 65211
Telephone: (573) 882-2011
Email: umpresident@umsystem.edu
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