Academic Books and their Future. A Report to the AHRC and the British Library

Abstract

• The aim in this report is to provide an account of perspectives from three key stakeholder groups—publishers, libraries, and intermediaries in the supply chain for academic books—and to highlight some key issues that arise from those different perspectives. A central set of perspectives is of course missing here, that of the members of the academic community who constitute the overwhelming majority of authors and readers of academic books. There is no single set of such perspectives, of course, and the project has gathered detailed evidence from junior as well as senior researchers in a wide range of subjects and disciplines, from literature and history to medieval studies, cultural and media studies, art history and many others. A full account of their views and interests, and the activities of scholars in different disciplines, has been provided in the Project Report, and need not be repeated here. Nevertheless, such perspectives are reflected in the discussion of key issues and themes presented in this report.