Supporting Digital Scholarship

“When it opened in 1876 as America’s first research university, Johns Hopkins embraced publishing as an innovative way to directly share new knowledge and discovery with the world. When we tell our story, we say that’s why Hopkins (a not-very-old university) is home to America’s oldest university press.

“When I consider why Project MUSE happened at Hopkins, I can’t help but think about that founding moment and Daniel Coit Gilman’s pioneering notion that universities have a ‘noble duty’ to deliver knowledge ‘far and wide’ to the world beyond the classroom. It’s hard to imagine a more innovative or compelling expression of Gilman’s intention than the global reach of Project MUSE, delivering a massive collection of scholarship to millions of readers at thousands of institutions in scores of countries.

“In so many ways, MUSE helps every university achieve a core mission: to create, collect, organize, and deliver knowledge and discovery to a world that desperately needs it. That’s the shared work of university presses and university libraries in particular, of course, and it echoes MUSE’s origins as a collaborative experiment by our library and press here at Hopkins.

“We take great pride in MUSE’s Hopkins roots, but we are ever mindful that MUSE’s astounding success has everything to do with the embrace and partnership of the broader academic community. We are truly grateful to all the publishers, librarians, and scholars who have helped MUSE thrive over 25 years, and I salute this vast and wonderful community of colleagues and friends on the occasion of this milestone anniversary.”

—Barbara Kline Pope