Alexander Street Press (ASP) is an online publisher that produces academic databases. It has over 40 online collections covering various subjects in the humanities and social sciences. ASP protects the works in its databases by restricting access through IP authentication and license agreements that prohibit commercial exploitation of the works. Authors agree to have their works included in ASP databases to reach wider audiences of scholars and students, which can increase sales of print works. Arcadia Publishing authors may have their published works included in an ASP database called Images of America, and they will receive royalties from ASP for inclusion of their works.

1. Arcadia Publishing and Alexander Street Press:
Frequently Asked Questions from New Arcadia Authors
Who is Alexander Street Press (ASP)? What do they publish?
ASP was established in 2000 and their mission is to develop high-quality, electronic publications in the
Humanities and the Social Sciences. They currently produce more than 40 web based products in the
areas of American History, Women’s Studies, African and African- American studies, North American
Indian Studies, Latino Studies, Literature, Drama, and Music. For the full catalog see
www.alexanderstreet.com. A typical ASP product contains 150,000 pages of material with
unprecedented functionality and unique indexing.
How big is their business?
ASP has 70 full-time employees. They have offices in Alexandria, Virginia and one just outside London,
England, with staff working from Canada, Brazil, and Australia, as well. They currently have some 2,000
library customers serving millions of students.
How does ASP protect the work and restrict access within the database?
ASP controls all access through an IP address. When a library subscribes, they give ASP their IP address,
which uniquely identifies the source of all queries to their collections. Unauthorized IP addresses cannot
gain access to the databases or view any portions of your work.
ASP also has a license agreement with each university, which is required upon purchase. This stipulates
that no part of their collections may be sold, distributed, or commercially exploited in any way. It states
that any text in the collections can be used only under the terms of "fair use", for educational purposes
only, and must be less than 2% of any given work. Any library found in violation of this agreement would
be penalized by losing their subscription. ASP also monitors activity on the all of their collections. If one
workstation were systematically downloading material, ASP would see it and disable the subscription.
This business really depends on ASP’s ability to protect the material they license. It is an integral part of
what they do. Currently, they have agreements with more than 1,000 publishers and copyright holders.
They have never had a violation by any customer.
Why do authors and copyright holders agree to a project like this?
In many cases, ASP is re-introducing the content into a library that has purchased it already in print form
but not made wide use of the material. The project is likely to renew interest in older titles, and we
believe it will result in increased print sales of those older works.
By monitoring the usage of the collections ASP has found that researchers do not print from these
databases. These universities are paying for the utility of the collection, rather than for texts that are
already available in print editions. We believe that the database will lead scholars to titles they may not
have otherwise discovered.
Primarily, authors choose to include their works in ASP collections in order to reach a wider group of
scholars and students. This does not cannibalize print sales; most authors instead find an increase in the
sales of their printed works.
Who are ASP’s other partners?
ASP has more than 1,000 publishing partners including universities, historical societies, film studios, and
publishers. They have a particular strength in publishing collections of letters and diaries—of both

2. famous historical figures and of everyday people. A few of their many partners in publishing are Warner
Bros., Library of Congress, The Smithsonian, and Oxford University Press.
Will ASP sell our titles separately in electronic form or only as part of the larger collection?
ASP only sells the collection as a whole to academic libraries. The searches that users will conduct work
throughout the database, so no work is more important than the other.
If I approve of the project, will I be paid royalties?
Yes, a modest royalty will be generated from the project and paid twice yearly with your royalties from
print book sales. These will not be large amounts, but will be a small supplement to your royalty income
from print book sales. The royalty payable on database and companion rights will be 8% of the actual
net amounts received by Arcadia from the sale or licence revenue of database and companion rights. For
the ASP database the royalties will be prorated across the books used in the database.
Has the database already been released? How many Arcadia Publishing titles are included?
Images of America: A History of American Life in Images and Texts was launched by Alexander Street
Press in 2009, and more than 1,500 Arcadia Publishing titles have been approved by authors for
inclusion.
Can I view the database before I decide?
You can access the database by going to http://lrho.alexanderstreet.com and entering the user name
“arcadia” and password “author.” Contributing authors will receive six months of access to the database
for their own personal and scholarly reference.
Do I need to ask my image sources for their permission for their materials to be included?
This will depend upon the use agreement you have with your sources when they loan photographs for
your publication. Some of your sources may stipulate one-time use only for your book in printed form.
Refer to any use agreements that your sources provide, and when in doubt, seek permission!
I will be paying for the use of some of the images in my book. Will ASP or Arcadia cover these costs?
Arcadia and ASP will not cover the costs associated with borrowing images.
How quickly can content be removed from the database?
Content can be removed from the database within 72 hours of receiving a request.
What happens if I find factual errors in my book after it has been published? Will these errors be
corrected in the ASP database?
Corrections such as these may be submitted to Arcadia and will be incorporated into your book file.
Updates to the database will occur periodically depending on the amount of content to be amended.
I have published a book with Arcadia in the past. Will this book be included in the database?
We will write to you under separate cover to seek your permission to include any past Arcadia titles in
the database; if you are already a published Arcadia author and have not yet received that letter and
would like to request one, please send an email to contractupdate@arcadiapublishing.com. Should you

3. publish additional Arcadia titles in the future, we will also ask for those works to be included in the
database. However, agreeing to include your current project does not prohibit you from excluding future
projects.
What if I don’t want my work to be included?
You have the option to decline to participate in this project.