Unisa Press has digitised 140 of its oldest books, for hosting within the Unisa Library's Institutional Repository. Open access to books in a range of subject fields are offered; from African Studies, Theology, History and with a specific strong section on African Philosophy. These publications reflect Unisa's early history as an institution, tracing the beginnings of innovative teachings on African philosophy as a specific strength.

1. 19 October 2015
Open Access Week
RESEARCH DEPARTMENT
Unisa Press
140 Years Heritage Collection
Hetta Pieterse

4. Positioning within Unisa
• Research & Innovation: Unisa Press & Unisa Library
Classic University Press: SPC governance
(& Unisa Library as SPC Member)
• Partnership: Unisa Library: SPC and IR
(Benchmarking, hosting, technical support)
• Partnership: College of Graduate Studies
(Data sharing; trouble-shooting; collection value
adding; increased profiling; server sharing)

5. Positioning - a wider take …
 Unisa Press 140 years: harnessing open access to
strategic benefit for the Press
 Use free materials to draw online traffic to the Press
 Integrate with commercial content; along multiple
entry points and different sites
 Inter-link with recent, current & forthcoming content
 Follow the freebie culture within the online world:
the gaming industry (hook them with demos);
the news media industry (pay walls)
 Subject content bundles as basis, rich metadata

6. From archiving into publishing …
 Starting with the oldest books; out-of print content,
into preservation; high-quality tiffs to smaller,
digitised and searchable e-pdf files
 Moving to link to and tapping into library audiences;
metadata enrichment to widen access and
discoverability; mapping usage; tracking customer
preferences … a first for Unisa Press
 Beyond MARC records: The OAPEN benchmark;
Library of Congress Codes (LCC) and Book Industry
Code (BCC) to link to the book industry

7. Global library-press collaboration …
 AAUP survey 2014: American University Presses
linking with their libraries: collaborations abound
 Convergence in terms of subject:
research dissemination; target audience
 Divergence in terms of commercial intent: break-
even goals per book
 Partnerships: Stockholm, Athabasca

8. A look inside the Collection …
 Origin: Unisa celebrated 140 years; oldest books;
titles selected from 1960
(peer reviewing as quality criteria)
 Easiest place to start: `written off’, low usage, out-of-
print books. Dormant, yet highly classical, peer-
reviewed content (esp Cultural Studies, Philosophy)
 Copyright clearance; correspondence with authors
 A range of authors, and showing certain dominant
subject fields – reflective of its history …

9. Subjects covered, speaks
of our early history…
 Languages: Afrikaans, English, isolated other
(Wambo, IsiXhosa, IsiZulu, Sesotho, Tsonga, French,
Portuguese)
 Authors primarily Unisa; some internationally
renowned; Hiddingh Currie winners
ORCID linkage as tool to discoverability; ideal to link
to other publications
 Theology abounds: Conference papers, Missiology,
bibliographies, but also controversial subjects (New
Age; bioethics, etc)

11. Subjects covered speaks
of history (continued)…
 Philosophy and Cultural Studies, showing emerging
Unisa teaching trends (African philosophy,
interdisciplinarity; the teaching of Logic into artificial
intelligence)
 Education and self-help books: practical resources
useful to students, parents, working professionals
 Language and Literature: reference works; scholarly
essays
 History: Britz, Boucher, Africa North of the Limpopo,
French speakers at the Cape, etc …

13. Growth for this collection …
 Keyword optimisation; metadata enrichment;
abstracts
 Full authors listing (all contributors); invite authors
to do ORCID listing
 Linking to the frontlist as freebies
 File size optimisation! Archiving meets online
hosting … user-friendly chunking; contents listing
 External collaborations: co-hosting locally and
overseas

14. The present, for digitisation …
 Frontlist digitisation; simplified content structuring;
contracts adjusted for e-content, too
 Recent books digitisation: permissions clearance.
Selection along prime commercial value as priority;
structure into distinct open access collections and
some as commercial content: a hybrid model!
 Parallel print and online: tap into market preference
 Learning from the journals at Unisa Press: online
publishing know-how (OMP), hybrid publishing
models; streamlining typesetting (faster, cheaper
workflow!)

15. Mapping the future: as we speak …
 Engaging with hybrid open access publishing
models: (Canadian university presses: learn from 13
models!)
 Funding challenges to balance with economic
constraints: more than one income stream to
develop; novel ways of funding; even try crowd-
sourcing on the Wambo book!
 DHET latest policy: scholarly monographs to earn
subsidies. This opportunity needs optimising
 Collaboration with local university presses and with
ASSAF; benchmarking.

16. Thank you.
Hetta Pieterse
pietehc@unisa.ac.za
… in closing …
Unisa Press
thanks the Unisa Library!