Thursday, September 25, 1997
ACU Press aims for popular market
By LORETTA FULTON / Abilene Reporter-News
Most readers of an anthology published by ACU Press containing
some of the world's great literature wouldn't consider it a scholarly
work as much as a collection of good reading.
But it was one of the more scholarly works published at the
press operated by Abilene Christian University. The fact that
ACU Press concentrates on works that will appeal to the public
rather than scholars may help save it from a trend afflicting
the nation's 100 university presses.
University libraries, under tight budgets, have been buying
fewer academic books the past few years from university presses.
With fewer orders from their main customers, the university-run
publishing houses have started rejecting scholarly books that
they don't believe will sell.
That in turn is affecting faculty at universities with the
"publish or perish" requirement for tenure.
Neither ACU's press nor its faculty is likely to be affected
by cutbacks in publication of scholarly works with limited appeal.
Hardin-Simmons University also has a press, but it publishes
only "fine books" that are considered collectibles,
not works by professors.
ACU Press has concentrated on books with mass appeal since
its founding in the early 1980s.
"From Day 1 we've been interested in reaching a non-scholarly
readership," said Thom Lemmons, manager of ACU Press. "We've
never been in the business of publishing monographs," which
are books of specialized academic research on narrow topics intended
to be read by other specialists.
"That trend will continue and hopefully even increase,"
Lemmons said.
Many of the publications from ACU Press are geared toward the
Church of Christ such as Sunday school books or pastoral epistles.
However, some works are published, even though they don't have
a large potential audience, just "because they ought to be
published," Lemmons said.
Such was the case with a book that outlined the history of
hymns used in Church of Christ services.
Professors at ACU needn't worry that their own press isn't
clamoring for their works. Apparently, most ACU faculty go elsewhere
for publication.
Even so, "publish or perish" isn't the battle cry
at ACU that it is at many larger universities that focus on research.
A comprehensive university like ACU views the nature of scholarship
differently from research universities, said Dr. Dwayne D. VanRheenen,
provost.
"Not everything has to be published; that's not the only
kind of scholarship," VanRheenen said.
ACU wants its faculty to be engaged in scholarship, VanRheenen
said, but that can take various forms such as application and
teaching.
"We don't require just publishing," he said.
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Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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