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Putting scholarship online

Putting scholarship online. Robert Faber Editorial Director, Scholarly and General Reference. OED and ODNB. Competition OED: none on same scale; lots of free dictionaries ODNB: none on same scale in British history; lots of low-grade biography Print, magnetic tape, CD-ROM, online …

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Putting scholarship online

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  1. Putting scholarship online Robert Faber Editorial Director, Scholarly and General Reference

  2. OED and ODNB • Competition • OED: none on same scale; lots of free dictionaries • ODNB: none on same scale in British history; lots of low-grade biography • Print, magnetic tape, CD-ROM, online … • Online business model: subscription • Unlimited • Concurrent user • Limited periods … so renewable

  3. Business models • Subscription • Pay-per-view / pay-per-access • Perpetual access (e-books?) • With hosting fee? • From online shops to e-readers (e-books?) • Mobile apps (e-books?) • Free! • Advertising • Market place • Infomediary

  4. OED project • OED first published 1884–1928 • 20-volume print set; text first digitized in 1980s; CD • Complete rewrite now under way • 70 staff • publishing online since March 2000 • currently 260,000 entries, 800,000 senses defined, 2.9 million quotations, 55 million words of text online • 10,000+ revised or new entries a year, in 4 updates • Editing now based around online publication and electronic materials • New search capabilities • By date, language of origin, full text, quotations, usage, region, etc. • Online has brought new readerships

  5. OED Online • Markets: academic and professional libraries • Law, medicine, as well as humanities • But also public libraries and individuals • In 8 years OED has gone from being the 20-volume gorilla of the dictionary world … • Legendary but rarely seen in the flesh • To the most-used Oxford dictionary online • 2,300 to >4,000 subscribers in last 5 years • Up to 2.8 million entries viewed each month • Challenge now to offer content at all levels of use • Language tool-kit a mix of print, PC, and online

  6. OED usage: entries displayed by month • Calendar 2000 • average 160,000/month • peak 320,000 in a month • Now • average >2m/month • peak c2.8m in a month

  7. Oxford DNB project • First published 1885–1901 (63 + 3 vols) • + supplements: total 36,000 lives, 33 vols, 33m words • New DNB project 1992–2004: £25m+ • 55,000 biographies • 10,000 images, 62m words • Written by 10,000 people worldwide • Communication, technology • 50,000 sub-projects made possible by technology • Database prepared for any form of publication

  8. Publish all together • Not the original plan • Shortened timescale: 12 years not 20 • More resources, more risk! • Enabled focus on subsets of content • Became a research project • Mobilize 10,000 contributors • 653 wrote the Victorian DNB (29,000 lives) • Would we do it that way now?

  9. ODNB online • Innovative online features • Highly searchable • by place, occupation, religion, date, images, etc. • Direct links other resources • Online ‘themes’ growing as British history companion • Rapid online sales growth • Driving traffic: biography index

  10. Marketing and positioning • Content relevant to everyone • Generates much interest: word hunts, family and local history • But content can be of the highest standard • Link to OUP’s mission • Brand awareness – and challenging misconceptions • Very large enterprises over very long time-spans • Ideally suited to electronic management • Hubs of online information • Built into the academic network

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