Supporting Digital Scholarship

“When I first worked with Project MUSE, the database included content from JHUP and only nine other participating publishers, altogether about 190 journals. The pilot program and the first 5 years of operation had been successful in many respects beyond the original expectations. In the ensuing years it was essential to continue to improve the rich variety of journals content offered, as well as to improve MUSE’s technology. Doing so required finding a perfect balance of offering the libraries affordable collections to suit their needs, returning royalties essential to publishers, while also investing in technology upgrades.

“We had some interesting negotiations with publishers over the years, but I am proud that we reached successful accommodations in nearly all instances. It was really exciting to see the MUSE journals program grow and to now include nearly 700 journals from more than 200 publishers.

“I am also especially proud of the launch of books as the University Press Content Consortium on Project MUSE in 2012. This represented a huge technical and managerial achievement by the MUSE staff. The offering, uniting 13,000 books from 70 publishers also resulted from an exceptionally well-planned research and communications effort by colleagues across the university press community.

“We also faced challenges, of course. Academic libraries were hard hit by funding cuts after the 2008-2009 recession. This slowed the growth in journal package subscriptions, which had the effect of limiting MUSE’s ability to bring new journals and new publishers into the program. Even four years later, libraries were slower to commit to acquiring MUSE books than our research indicated would be the case. The limitations on library funding for acquisition of humanities content presented a problem for Project MUSE as it did for many others in academic publishing.

“Project MUSE was an exciting new idea in 1995. It attracted quite a number of interested customers and talented staff members then, and it continued to do so over the subsequent years. Project MUSE received strong support and engagement from academic librarians from the beginning. Both at JHU and other institutions, librarians were exceptionally communicative about their needs and likes, and this helped shape the offerings.

“Also, since the nineties, MUSE benefitted from a proud and deeply committed staff. These people included dedicated and well-focused technology experts, production specialists, librarians, marketers, customer service, and finance staff. Of course, there were also a succession of very talented leaders and directors of Project MUSE: Marie Hansen, Bill Breichner, Aileen McHugh, Mary Rose Muccie, Dean Smith, and now Wendy Queen. They each knew how to listen to one another, and to listen to the publishers. All these people contributed most importantly to the success of Project MUSE.

“I am very proud that I hired three of those directors! I am also proud that I encouraged the staff in other parts of JHU Press to work collaboratively with MUSE to inform and support its work. This was always a group effort.

“I hope that Project MUSE will continue to grow and prosper.”

—Kathleen Keane