07-09-07

Media Release

OSU Press finds new home in OSU Libraries

CORVALLIS, Ore. - The Oregon State University Press is now a division of OSU Libraries, an administrative change made earlier this month to ensure the continued success of the state’s only university press, OSU officials say.

The 46-year-old academic imprint had most recently been part of OSU’s Division of Academic Affairs. But a university task force examining business trends affecting the OSU Press recommended last spring that it be made part of OSU Libraries. The task force noted that several academic presses nationwide have achieved greater financial success and stability in relationships with their respective libraries.

University Librarian Karyle Butcher, who has held that position at OSU for 26 years, will serve as director of the press. Butcher holds degrees from OSU, the University of Southern California and Berkeley and was Oregon’s “Librarian of the Year” in 1998.

“The OSU Press plays a vital role in OSU’s mission to serve the people of Oregon and the Pacific Northwest,” Butcher said. “The library shares with the press commitments to ensuring that knowledge is widely accessible and that there is a venue for research to get published and disseminated.”

Tom Booth, formerly the press’s marketing manager, had served as interim director over the past year. He now becomes assistant director with a focus on increasing the acquisition of manuscripts and the visibility of OSU Press books. Authors interested in working with the press should contact Booth at (503) 796-0547 or thomas.booth@oregonstate.edu, or Mary Elizabeth Braun, the press's acquisitions editor, at 541-737-3166 or mary.braun@oregonstate.edu.

“The goal of OSU Libraries is to support and nurture learning, teaching, and scholarship,” said Booth. “Their mission complements that of OSU Press, and I believe our collaboration—with its synergies in marketing, fund raising, and technological initiatives—will result in a stronger, more vital publishing program at OSU.”

Since its founding in 1961, the OSU Press has supported the university as a major research institution by publishing outstanding works of scholarship by the faculty of OSU and other institutions, as well as works of general interest to readers in the state and beyond.

The OSU Press specializes in books of importance to the Pacific Northwest—especially those dealing with natural resource issues and the history, natural history, cultures and literature of the region. The Press has a long tradition of publishing books about the region, including:

• guides to flora and fauna, atlases and guides to natural and historic sites;

• biographies, memoirs and oral histories of cultural or historic importance;

• and literary works by some of the region’s most accomplished writers.

Additional information about the OSU Press, including a complete list of books in print, is available online at http://oregonstate.edu/dept/press.