Princeton University Press Launches Princeton Legacy Library

More than 3,000 Out-of-Print Books from Its Celebrated Backlist will become available through Ingram Content Group

Princeton Legacy Library Web site: http://press.princeton.edu/princeton-legacy-library

On Monday, July 14, 2014, Princeton University Press will introduce the Princeton Legacy Library (PLL), its newly digitized out-of-print backlist. The PLL will make Princeton’s backlist titles available digitally through Ingram Content Group in both print-on-demand editions and as ebooks for libraries and scholarly institutions through leading library aggregators.

According to Press Director Peter J. Dougherty, “By digitizing our backlist in the Princeton Legacy Library, the Press has used the latest technology to make our past publications readily available to readers all over the world. Researchers and students in many developing countries will have access to our historical titles for the first time ever.”

On July 14, over 1,200 titles will be released in the Princeton Legacy Library with subsequent batches planned through 2016, moving backward through Princeton University Press’s vaunted publishing history. Books included in the first installment will cover the years from approximately 1980 to 2000. When completed, the program will include over 3,000 titles. Notable titles this year include George Kennan’s Russia Leaves the War. Volume 1 of Soviet-American Relations(1986), John Wheeler’s edited Quantum Theory and Measurement (1983), Gladys Reichard’s Navaho Religion (1963), Sandra Zimdars-Swartz’s Encountering Mary: From La Salette to Medjugorje (1991), and John Polkinghorne’s The Faith of a Physicist: Reflections on a Bottom-Up Thinker (1994).

“It’s gratifying to know that our work and innovation at Ingram Content Group is making a program such as the Princeton Legacy Library possible,” said John Ingram, Ingram Content Group’s Chairman and CEO, and ’83 graduate of Princeton University. “Reviving out-of-print works so they continue to be resources for learning is one of the many ways we are using new technology to improve accessibility and availability of reading material on a global scale. On many levels, I’m pleased that Ingram is partnering with Princeton University Press to support their pursuit to provide scholarly content to learners around the world.”

“This project has been made possible in large part by advances in digital technology,” according to Assistant Director and Director of Marketing Adam Fortgang, who noted, “Over the past few years, the Press has seen a significant increase in demand for our out-of-print books and, with the advent of improved scanning technology, we felt we could fulfill our scholarly mission by making high-quality digital editions of these books available once again.”

Produced using the latest print-on-demand technology, these paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books and present them in durable and affordable volumes for new generations of readers.

Working closely with Ingram, the Press developed a system to automate the creation of paperback covers to give the Princeton Legacy Library a standard look and format. The cover designs were created by Tom Geismar of the distinguished graphic design firm, Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv. All books in the Library will be available digitally for libraries and institutions. Initially, the ebook versions will not be available via retailers until sufficient demand warrants additional conversions.

In keeping with the fundamental mission of Princeton University Press, the Princeton Legacy Library continues the Press’s commitment, “to disseminating the highest quality scholarship (through print and digital media) both within academia and to society at large. Princeton University Press seeks to publish the innovative works of the greatest minds in academia, from the most respected senior scholar to the extraordinarily promising graduate student, in each of the disciplines in which we publish.”

Perils of innovation

What’s common to things that are claimed as innovation in education is that they have been tried before, with limited or no success 

If he had not been a wealthy man, he could have found a role as Arnold’s adversary in The Expendables or some such super-brawny movie. It looked like he wanted to crush me, which he could have done with his finger-tips.

He had requested for a meeting, wanting to learn about school education in India. Early in the discussion, he stated his view emphatically that information and communications technology was the fountain of innovation for solutions to India’s problems in education. On such matters there is no point in mincing words, so I told him this was not correct, first politely and then as he refused to listen, more directly. 

Along with his wealth, he hadn’t acquired the ability to listen. So he raved, louder and louder about the game-changing impact of smart-boards and sundry other tech toys, and how these could reduce dependency on teachers. Then he started attacking me as a stuck-in-the-mud Luddite, and for being another irritating obstacle to much needed innovations. 

Since I was confident that I could outrun him, if he did attack me physically, I saw no reason to tolerate this nonsense in my own office. So I told him that we would end the meeting right then.

Not all discussions on innovation in education have the same drama, but some things are common. Basically that the committed, passionate advocate of the so-called innovation feels frustrated by my refusal to acknowledge the innovation as innovation, let alone a significant one. 

Let me take a couple of more examples. There was this deeply committed educationist arguing for curricular innovations. What he was referring to was the integration of specific streams of vocational education from grade six. This would include things such as plumbing, masonry, electrical repair, etc. A good economist claimed hiring a local villager at low salary, and using her as a teacher after some training was an innovation leading to improved learning levels. 

What’s common to all these things that are claimed as innovation is that they all have the good intention of improving education from its current state. One could argue most such things are not innovations because they have been tried before, with limited or no success. While that is true, I think there are two more fundamental issues in claiming such things as innovation in education. 

Let’s take the first issue, which is quite simple. If you were to get a bunch of experts in education to consider whatever is being attempted, would they find reasonable consensus, informed by the then understanding of education, that it’s a good thing to attempt educationally? 

This would mean due consideration, for example, of aims of education, pedagogical alternatives, the nature of subjects and the understanding of child development, while also considering the socio-cultural context. It would factor the impact of the proposed innovation on the capacity, culture and autonomy of the school. All this would be equally applicable to curriculum and pedagogical practices, as to resourcing, arrangements and structures of school organization and systems. 

On this matter of educational soundness of the three innovations that I have mentioned, a brief summary would be that these are things that neither are fundamentally good for education nor are these better alternatives. Many advocates of such innovations themselves would agree with this educational summary. However, they would contend that given various kinds of constraints that our school education and society face, these things must be attempted. 

To address this matter of given our constraints, let’s look at the related second issue, which is even simpler. Whatever is being touted as an innovation to help improve the current state of education, would you want your children to go to a school that uses it? 

Would you want your children to go to a school that thinks that poor teaching can be offset by smartboards? How about your children’s school vocationalizing education from grade six? Or using someone from the neighbourhood as a teacher after four weeks of training?

The answers to these questions will lead to the common, basic problem with such things. These things are all being proposed such that they will be implemented in schools that serve disadvantaged populations. We will never think of implementing these things in schools serving the upper middle class. 

Such things only harden and deepen systemic inequity. Instead of improving what is required to be improved, which are the well understood fundamentals (teacher education and support, system culture, greater investment, etc.), these are attempts to take shortcuts, the kind which we will never accept for ourselves because these are suboptimal or wrong. At the core this is injustice. 

Education by its very nature demands innovation and creativity, within the classroom and school. Paradoxically, our organizational culture throttles that creativity, while touting other things as innovation. For anything to be classified as innovation in education, let’s put it to two simple tests: is it educationally sound and is it equitable and just?

Anurag Behar is CEO of Azim Premji Foundation and also leads sustainability initiatives for Wipro Ltd. He writes every fortnight on issues of ecology and education.

Comments are welcome at othersphere@livemint.com. To read Anurag Behar’s previous columns, go to www.livemint.com/othersphere

How to Streamline the Way You Read Your News

The problem with a fast-paced city life is that you're always short on time. Getting your daily news fix is one thing that should'nt take up much of your time. Hitesh Raj Bhagat & Karan Bajaj show you how you can get all the news that's important to you, delivered quickly and effortlessly to the device you want it on

ON A COMPUTER Glowdart.com If you prefer a continuously scrolling, ticker based newsfeed, Glowdart is your best option. Unlike most websites, there is no registration required -just open the website in a browser and it will start showing you scrolling headlines from various sources -click on a headline to read the story in detail. You can choose from a list of various news sources and even link your Facebook and Twitter feed to it. Keep in mind that the news feed is refreshed every few minutes, so it will consume a fair bit of your Internet bandwidth.

Guzzle.it Guzzle lets you create a customised news page with topics of your choice within the browser. You can add any topic you like from the settings and Guzzle will browse through hundred of sources to get the latest news on it. It shows you the latest headlines and popular headlines side-by-side -you can click to open the detailed article in a new tab. Creating an account is not necessary, but if you do, you can access your customised news page from any other computer or web browser by signing in.

Newsblur.com Newsblur offers a split-screen interface for news. It has a large sidebar where you can sort various feeds/sites under different categories. There are also sections for global stories and most shared stories. The reader side is split in two sections -the top shows the article while the bottom displays only headlines. You can choose to view the selected article as a a snippet or get the full web view in the same window. Another good thing about Newsblur is that you can choose the font size, font type, spacing between lines and even the layout.

Dailyme.com DailyMe is the one to go for if you like a clean layout with clear labels and categories. Like any news website, DailyMe has topics unders various tabs -click on a topic to get the latest news about it. You also have the option to personalise the news feed by adding a topic of your choice or by manually adding RSS feeds from a website. If you create a free account, DailyMe keeps track of your reading habits and customises content to suit your taste.

ON A MOBILE DEVICE Flipboard Flipboard (available for iOS, Windows Phone, BlackBerry, Android) creates a magazine-style news feed with big images on your handheld device.

You can customise the content with topics of your choice as well as add your social network feeds. Zite With over 40,000 topics, Zite (available for iOS & Android) delivers personalised news in an easy-to read-interface. You can also choose to link your Facebook, Twitter or Pocket accounts to get personalised topic suggestions. 

LinkedIN Pulse As the name suggest, Pulse is a news aggregator by LinkedIn (available for iOS & Android). The interface uses the entire screen of your device to show a large image and headline for each article -just swipe left to see the next story. We liked that that articles are automatically downloaded for offline reading when the app is open.

Weave News Reader Weave (Windows Phone only) has a similar tile based interface to the Windows Phone home screen. Your topics and articles appear as scrollable tiles with images -tapping a tile opens up the story within the app and you can even get the phone to read the article out for you.

Pocket/Readability Both these apps (available for iOS & Android) perform a similar function -they let you save content from various sources to read later, even if you are offline. You need to create a free account on the service and then, when you come across something interesting, you can save it for later in one click. Useful for frequent travelers.

Taptu Taptu (iOS, Android & BlackBerry) lets you create a curated stream of news feeds from selected topics of interest as well as your favourite websites. Each story is represented as a photo tile -tap on a story to open a mobile optimised layout. Plus, you can customise the font and image sizes within the app as per your taste. Getprismatic.com If you like the magazine style layout for reading news (which a lot of smartphone/tablet apps have), you can also get it for your PC. Prismatic is what we use and it works within a web browser. After a free signup, select your topics and Prismatic will load the relevant stories in a scrollable, magazine-style layout. You can switch between topics from a handy sidebar and even search for other topics on the fly. Finally, you can connect your social media accounts to share and a Pocket account to save content for offline reading. 

Source| Economic Times | 11 June 2014