Sayeed Choudhury
Associate Dean for Research Data Management
Johns Hopkins University
Greg Britton
Editorial Director
Johns Hopkins University Press
Wendy Queen
Director, Project MUSE
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Press, Project MUSE, and the JHU Sheridan Libraries are developing a novel set of open educational resources through the Black Press in America Project. Led by Professor Kim Gallon of Purdue University, a group of scholars is developing educational resources based on an examination of historical and current African-American newspapers. By focusing on the workflows between people, processes, and products, this group of authors is working iteratively with both a publisher and a library to develop peer-reviewed print books, open-access monographs hosted on the MUSE platform, and a set of associated digital resources hosted by the Sheridan Libraries. By adopting this approach, we are simultaneously respecting and extending existing workflows to balance sustainability, innovation, and global distribution. Rather than adopt the familiar process of defining requirements at the beginning of the development effort, the Black Press in America Project features a more dynamic approach that explicitly considers opportunities for developing and connecting print books, open-access monographs, and digital resources. Examples include the use of Omeka to collect digital content from authors and to create digital exhibits over time that might generate ongoing interest in the books. Additionally, through the use of an Omeka plug-in for the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF), we will import IIIF resources for digital exhibits and expose those IIIF resources through third-party viewers. Finally, the Sheridan Libraries have developed an IIIF viewer and linked data capabilities that will be used to connect the various print and digital resources into a set of open educational resources. The challenge of building this type of seamless connectivity is mitigated through the iterative development process including authors, press, and library. The presenters will describe the process through which this project formed and demonstrate prototype capabilities.