October 2008
- AAP: Some states including ethics provisions in textbook laws
- Sante Fe College distributes memorandum to faculty regarding textbook buyers on campus
- Attend three-day course on textbook writing Jan. 5-7
- Institutional repositories give professors direct way to 'get research to the right people'
- McGraw-Hill seeking articles for award recognizing scholarly work on teaching, learning
- Chilean Ministry of Education to hold forum on language, communication textbooks
- TAA thanks Sustaining, Contributing Members
- Listen to recording of TAA Teleconference on strengthening your literature review
- Geologist receives first TAA Publication Grant
- Start a TAA Chapter
- TAA members start first TAA chapter at MSU-Mankato
- TAA seeks applications for Council of Fellows
- Listen to recording of TAA Teleconference on online feedback tools for authors
AAP: Some states including ethics provisions in textbook laws
The Association of American Publishers (AAP) reports that several states, including Oklahoma, California, Florida and New York, have begun including ethics provisions in their textbook laws. "The AAP has written and supported these kinds of provisions in numerous cases, which is particularly important as we've seen an up tick in the disreputable practice of profiting from the sale of complimentary copies," said Stacy S. Skelly, director for Higher Education.
Oklahoma has the strictest provisions, she said. Its HB 2101 prohibits faculty from demanding or receiving payment for the adoption of specific course materials -- sometimes referred to kickbacks -- ends the practice of faculty profiting from the sale of their complimentary copies, and bans bookstores and vendors from engaging in the sale of these copies.
California's AB 1558 prohibits "kickbacks", bans bookstores from soliciting faculty for the purpose of selling unsolicited instructor of complimentary teacher editions. Bookstores are also banned from engaging in the trade of unsolicited instructor or complimentary instructor editions.
Florida's HB 603 states that faculties are unable to request anything of value from publishers in exchange for requiring certain texts. Faculty and other public institution employees are banned from selling marked free sample textbooks for compensation.
New York's SB 3063 prohibits faculty from demanding or receiving payment for adopting specific course materials and bans them from selling their sample or instructor copies.
Virginia and West Virginia have similar language that bans inducements for adopting course materials and prohibits faculty members from reselling their free sample or instructor copies.
Sante Fe College distributes memorandum to faculty regarding textbook buyers on campus
Faculty at Sante Fe College in Gainesville, Florida, received a memorandum on September 25 from Anne M. Kress, the College's provost and vice president of academic affairs, that shared guidelines for how to deal with solicitations from textbook buyers.
The memo outlined two Sante Fe College Rules that specifically address the issue of conducting business on campus, including a prohibition on commercial solicitation or sales on college premises, and the use of college facilities to earn a personal profit.
The memo also mentions a new Florida bill that prohibits state employees from selling textbooks marked not for resale, and from requesting anything of value from publishers in exchange for requiring certain texts.
Attend three-day course on textbook writing Jan. 5-7
Veteran textbook author Michael Spiegler will be presenting an intensive three-day course on
writing a textbook in St. Petersburg, FL on January 5-7, 2009 (a Chautauqua Short-Course for
teachers).
This hands-on, interactive course will cover the challenges and rewards of textbook writing by
providing participants with a realistic snapshot of what it entails, what is required professionally
and personally, how to get started, and how to bring the vision of a book to fruition, which
includes writing a prospectus and sample chapters, contacting publishers, negotiating a favorable contract, the writing phase, the production phase, dealing with publishers, alternatives to traditional publishing, and survival skills for authors.
Spiegler is a professor of psychology at Providence College and has been a successful textbook
author for 40 years, with leading books in two areas of psychology. He has presented numerous
workshops on textbook writing at universities, professional conventions, and at the annual TAA
conference. He is currently writing a comprehensive Handbook for College Textbook Writing.
For details about the course and to enroll, visit http://depts.washington.edu/chautauq/ For
additional information, contact Michael at spiegler@providence.edu
Institutional repositories give professors direct way to 'get research to the right people'
by Kim Seidel
Missouri University of Science & Technology (Missouri S&T) launched a digital institutional repository (IR) called "Scholars' Mine" (http://scholarsmine.mst.edu) in spring 2007 as a way to present a collection of the university's academic output. An IR gives professors and faculty an effective way to present their research work over the Internet in a controlled and scholarly manner, said Amanda Piegza, Scholars' Mine's head librarian.
Scholars' Mine is accessible anywhere in the world for free through the web at http://scholarsmine.mst.edu. The university's goal for Scholars’ Mine is for it to eventually contain thousands of scholarly articles, theses/dissertations, white papers, technical reports, patent information and other materials highlighting and displaying the research work of Missouri S&T's faculty and students.
"Scholars’ Mine helps to ensure a cohesive and consistent presentation of research done at the university," says Piegza. "All research is gathered into one location and data is attributed to each item that can be fed out to places like Google Scholar."
Faculty members benefit from IRs in many ways, she said: “Most notably, they have better dissemination of their works." Research studies have shown that when academic authors’ works are available openly, rather than solely in subscription-based journals, it can lead to higher citation rates and more funding for future research, she said.
A staff of nine , including Piegza and eight part-timers, was hired earlier this year to run Scholars' Mine. Since then, an average of 300 items has been added to the IR each month. “We’re working on adding faculty members’ prior published works,” Piegza said. “But there will always be additions of new faculty publications as well as new theses and dissertations. Since it is an ongoing endeavor, there is no ‘finish line.’”
To scholarly authors, the dissemination of research to the right people is extremely important, she said. Grant money, partnerships, potential students, job opportunities and more advantages are gained by others learning about the work being accomplished at the university.
“Because of the advanced method we use, the data held in Scholars’ Mine can be fed out in real time to department and faculty websites, as well as center and lab websites,” Piegza said. “In this way, the interests of the researchers can be highlighted so that they can show investors, partners and others the kind of research they have done.”
Scholars’ Mine is open access: Anyone can view all pages. However, some of the links, such as the ones to publisher pages, are not open access. In those cases, a person needs to be affiliated with an institution that has a subscription to the publisher’s website to access those links.
Maintaining an IR
When Scholars’ Mine was first launched, it had no staff hired specifically to run it, so minimal items were posted. Library staff introduced the idea of developing an IR about five years ago, but the library didn't move forward on the project until some faculty members got interested in the project and contacted the Information Technology (IT) Department.
IT then contacted the library because they had looked into it previously, said Piegza. “IRs are usually a joint effort between a university library and IT department because libraries are generally in charge of IRs and the IT department is essential for programming and other technological reasons," she said. When promoting Scholars’ Mine, prototypes were first developed. The chancellor then approved funding for staff positions in the library to do the work, and Scholars’ Mine became a reality.
The university decided to create its own IR platform. “It is based in Documentum, but the structure of Scholars’ Mine is very ‘home-grown’ in that many applications and features were coded by IT professionals right here at the university,” Piegza said. “However, with this added benefit comes the challenge of having to troubleshoot issues essentially on our own, more labor is involved for library and IT staff, and other issues that come with creating a unique IR.”
A second major challenge is what copyright holders allow to be archived on Scholars’ Mine, she said: “All former students hold copyright to their theses and dissertations, so we need them to sign an agreement noting that we can post their works online. Getting a hold of alumni from the last 74 years is a bit of a challenge.”
In addition, not all publishers allow the university to archive the full text of articles. In those cases, the staff can only link to the publisher’s full text versions, not upload the full text themselves, Piegza said.
At Scholars’ Mine, there is no extra workload for the authors. Funding was established to create permanent staff positions within the library to enter data for the authors. Staff processes and catalogs the materials and places them in the IR.
Scholars’ Mine web site: http://scholarsmine.mst.edu
Kim Seidel is a freelance writer based in Onalaska, Wis.
McGraw-Hill seeking articles for award recognizing scholarly work on teaching, learning
McGraw-Hill and The Teaching Professor (Magna Publications, Inc.) have joined forces to create an award that recognizes exemplary scholarly work on teaching and learning. The first award with its accompanying stipend of $1,000 will be given at the 2009 Teaching Professor Conference, June 5-7 in Washington, D.C.
To be considered, the piece of scholarly writing must be at least 1,500 words and must have been published after 2006 in a discipline-specific, a cross-disciplinary pedagogical periodical, or a more general higher education publication. The piece of scholarship may address any topic related to college-level teaching and learning. Preference will not be given to a particular kind of scholarship. It may be a research report (quantitative or qualitative), a piece that describes development and/or implementation of a new teaching strategy or assignment, an article that offers advice based on research or experience or both, or an inspirational essay or article that takes a position with respect to an aspect of instruction or a teaching-learning issue. Articles may be nominated by readers or authors.
Submitted articles will be blind reviewed by a panel which will include published authors, editors and faculty familiar with the pedagogical literature. Among a variety of criteria, they will be looking for an article with potential to positively impact the instructional practice of the college teaching community. A complete list of criteria, other award details and submission procedures may be found at: www.teachingprofessor.com/award.
Plans are underway to disseminate the winning article at The Teaching Professor Conference, in The Teaching Professor newsletter and beyond.
Submit your scholarly work at: www.teachingprofessor.com/award.
Chilean Ministry of Education to hold forum on language, communication textbooks
The Textbook Unit of the Chilean Ministry of Education will hold an international forum, "The International Seminar on Language and Communication Textbook" in Santiago, Chile, May 25-27, 2009.
The goal of the Seminar is to share the broad array of ideas and perspectives, and to open spaces for discussion related to teaching practices with Language and Communication textbooks from a national and international approach.
The successful "Seminario Internacional de Textos Escolares -SITE 2006" and the high interest in the History Textbook Seminar to be held in November this year, said organizers, have demonstrated that high-quality textbooks are one of the most important factors in making the learning experience more relevant to students and teachers. For that reason, they have decided to continue with an international forum to maintain the dialogue on textbooks and to develop academic competences related to teacher’s knowledge in this area.
The objectives of the Seminar:
- To make possible the exchange of studies and researches that can help to improve the textbook quality as a didactic tool of support considering the new approaches to the teaching of Language and Literature.
- To exchange experiences considering relevant issues such as: analysis of the speech, reading habits, teaching of reading-writing and Literature.
- To establish a debate about the real importance of Language textbooks for the development of linguistic abilities in a globalized world.
- To stimulate the Chilean academy, especially in the area of education and the teaching of Language to develop competences and increase the capacity in the production, use and research on school textbooks.
The Seminar welcomes contributions from teachers, publishers, university-based faculty of education researchers related to Literature, Linguistic or other matters and graduated students on the following topics: language and Literature didactics on school textbooks; content Analysis in school textbooks; school textbooks and reading ability; and school textbooks and initial literacy.
Send an abstract (max 200 words) exclusively on the topics mentioned above, to: textos@textosescolares.cl
Deadline for abstract: November 15th 2008.
TAA thanks Sustaining, Contributing Members
TAA thanks Sustaining Members Ron Pynn, David Myers, and Fred Kleiner, as well as Contributing Member Michael Lennie.
Listen to recording of TAA Teleconference on strengthening your literature review
TAA members can now listen to a recording of the October 17 TAA Teleconference "Scholarly Writing: Strengthening Your Literature Review" presented by Sonja Foss, professor of communication, University of Colorado, and William Waters, assistant professor of English at University of Houston-Downtown. Click here to listen
Geologist receives first TAA Publication Grant
 Reika Yokochi |
Geologist Reika Yokochi, a visiting research assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, has been awarded a TAA Publication Grant of $750 to help cover the cost of publishing her article about the enigmatic diamond "carbonado", a naturally occurring black diamond, in The Canadian Minerologist. Yokochi's grant is the first one awarded by TAA.
TAA members can apply for a Publication Grant of up to $750 to cover the cost of publishing already accepted journal articles, or for the preparation of artwork or other charts, diagrams or images to be included in accepted articles or academic books.
Yokochi, a new TAA member, learned about TAA's Publication Grants on the TAA website. "It was literally the only grant I could apply to my situation," she said. "I was not aware of the cost of publication, and was told about the charge a month before publication, while the proof was being made."
The title of Yokochi's article, coauthored with Daniel Ohnenstetter, from the Centre de Recherches Pétrographiques et Géochimiques, Rue Notre-Dame-des-Pauvres, and Yuji Sano, from the Center for Advanced Marine Research, Ocean Research Institute at The University of Tokyo, is "Intergrain Variation in g13C And Nitrogen Concentration Associated with Textural Heterogeneities of Carbonado".
"Carbonado diamonds have several strange characteristics that have made geologists hypothesize that these diamonds probably did not come from the deep Earth (where ordinary diamonds originate)," said Yokochi. "Geologists have suggested that carbonado diamonds could have been formed in four ways: 1) from ancient organic carbon that subducted deep tectonic activity; 2) by an alpha-irradiation (from U-decay) of carbon in a sedimentary rock; 3) at the surface of the Earth by a high-pressure shock of asteroid's impact; or 4) in a interstellar medium and carried as a part of meteorites (These are "romantic" stories to geologists' because diamonds should normally form in deep Earth).
"Our study demonstrates that the third hypothesis is unlikely, as well as that the textures and compositional heterogeneity of carbonado diamonds resemble that of igneous rocks," she said. "Other recent studies have shown that the first and second hypotheses were disproved. There is always the possibility that the fourth hypothesis is correct, but no meteorites contain a diamond similar to carbonado.
"Overall, the textural similarity between carbonados and igneous rocks we observed may imply that they actually are formed by an igneous activity deep in the Earth," said Yokochi. "Some earlier arguments against this statement are recently being refuted although some questions still remain."
Yokochi started the article with a supervisor in Japan while studying for her Master's degree, but added data while studying for her PhD with some help from another researcher in a different laboratory in France. "Although I started as a student, I ended up leading the project," she said. "By the time the paper was accepted, I was a visiting research assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. These factors made me feel uncomfortable asking my coauthors to pay a major part of the publication cost. I appreciate this grant from TAA very much."
TAA has up to $7,500 available for making TAA Publication Grants in 2008-2009. Grants will be awarded on a first-come, first-served basis. The grant period runs from July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009.
To apply for a TAA Publication Grant, fill out a grant application form. Attach a copy of the publisher's letter of acceptance and a copy of the publisher's charge invoice. Mail to TAA Executive Director Richard Hull, 3241 Heather Hill Lane, Tallahassee, FL 32309-2307.
Start a TAA Chapter
TAA recently launched a new TAA Chapter system as a way to encourage TAA members to develop textbook or scholarly article writing support groups.
"A TAA Chapter is a great way to incorporate TAA’s member benefits and resources into your writing group or professional development activities," said Kim Pawlak, TAA's associate executive director.
A TAA Chapter must have a minimum of 15 initial members. One person must be designated as Chapter Chair. The Chapter Chair is responsible for recruiting chapter members and communicating with TAA headquarters about chapter activities. For taking on this role, the Chapter Chair receives a free annual TAA membership.
Each TAA Chapter receives the following benefits:
- A start-up grant of $500 to cover the cost of purchasing a library of textbook and academic authoring resource materials, and conducting a chapter recruitment event, such as a recruitment breakfast, lunch, or wine and cheese party.
- A chapter website linked to the main TAA website.
- A chapter listserv to be used for communicating among chapter members.
- A TAA email address (yourname@taaonline.net) for each chapter member. This is a useful tool for managing your TAA Chapter email and listserv subscriptions, and to communicate among chapter members.
- Administrative support from TAA headquarters (TAA headquarters staff will process all chapter memberships and send renewal notices to chapter members).
- All the benefits of a TAA membership for each chapter member, including a monthly print newsletter, bi-monthly email News Alerts, access to the members-only areas of the TAA website, discounts on editing services and legal fees, and more.
- 20 percent of each chapter member’s dues returned each year. The Chair must send an annual report detailing how these funds are used.
- Chapters with 30 or more members receive one free TAA workshop of their choice (valued at $5,000) per membership year. TAA will send the Chapter Chair a voucher for a free TAA Workshop once chapter membership reaches 30 members. Each membership year, the Chapter membership must be at least 30 members to qualify for the free workshop.
Members interested in forming a TAA Chapter should contact Kim Pawlak at kim.pawlak@taaonline.net or (608) 687-3106.
For more information on forming a textbook or scholarly writing group, see:
TAA to hold teleconference on how to form scholarly writing group
Writing workshops provide support for academic authors
Two members form first TAA Chapter at MSU-Mankato
TAA members start first TAA chapter at MSU-Mankato
 Stephen Bohnenblust  Andrew Johnson |
TAA members Andrew Johnson and Stephen Bohnenblust have started TAA's first chapter at Minnesota State University, Mankato. More than 30 faculty have joined their chapter, named "TAA Alpha Chapter at MSU, Mankato", so far. Bohnenblust, director of the Center for Excellence in Scholarship and Research (CESR) at MSU-Mankato, will serve as the initial Chapter Chair. Johnson, professor of holistic education in the Department of Special Education at MSU, Mankato, will be assisting Bohnenblust with the new chapter.
Bohnenblust said that he decided to start a TAA Chapter as a way to enhance his university's newly formed writing group for faculty interested in writing textbooks. "Most textbook authors know very little about textbook publishing," he said. "They know their content areas, but don't know what questions to ask when it comes to publishing. TAA has so many resources available for textbook authors."
At MSU, Mankato (a non-Research 1 university) textbooks are considered a valuable scholarly activity, said Bohnenblust: "Textbook authoring fits well with what we are trying to encourage among our faculty. We feel that TAA's many resources combined with what we can offer, will provide us with the opportunity to get more of our faculty members interested in textbook authoring."
Bohnenblust said he plans to direct his chapter members to TAA's various benefits, including articles, news, listservs, teleconferences and workshops. "TAA has a number of different resources that I think will be valuable to our chapter members," he said. "I would guess we would tap into a large number of them. One of our members asked me a question recently about coauthoring and I was able to pull up an article on that topic from the 2008 Conference and share it with him. I'm hoping that eventually members will go to the TAA website and look things like this up themselves."
Bohnenblust's department is paying for the chapter memberships. "Most of our chapter members and prospective chapter members don't know about TAA," he said. "It is more difficult to get people to buy into something they aren't familiar with. So we decided to give them all a trial membership. It was relatively easy and inexpensive to do it that way."
A TAA Chapter can be started with a minimum of 15 members, and those members can include existing TAA members. New TAA Chapter members pay the same dues as any new TAA member, $30. TAA Chapters must designate a Chapter Chair who is responsible for communicating with TAA headquarters about the chapter. For taking on that role, the Chapter Chair receives a free annual membership. Each TAA Chapter receives the following benefits:
- A start-up grant of $500 to cover the cost of purchasing a library of textbook and academic authoring resource materials, and conducting a chapter recruitment event, such as a recruitment breakfast, lunch, or wine and cheese party.
- A chapter website linked to the main TAA website.
- A chapter listserv to be used for communicating among chapter members.
- A TAA email address (yourname@taaonline.net) for each chapter member.
- Administrative support from TAA headquarters (TAA headquarters staff will process all chapter memberships and send renewal notices to chapter members).
All the benefits of a TAA membership for each chapter member, including a monthly print newsletter, bi-monthly email News Alerts, access to the members-only areas of the TAA website, discounts on editing services and legal fees, and more. - 20 percent of each chapter member's dues returned each year. The Chair must send an annual report detailing how these funds are used.
- Chapters with 30 or more members receive one free TAA workshop of their choice (valued at $5,000) per membership year. TAA will send the Chapter Chair a voucher for a free TAA Workshop once chapter membership reaches 30 members. Each year, the Chapter membership must be at least 30 members to qualify for the free workshop.
- Two customized teleconferences per year on topics of the chapter's choice, held during the chapter's regularly scheduled meeting time.
For more information on starting a TAA Chapter, click here.
If you're ready to start a TAA Chapter or have additional questions, contact Kim Pawlak at kim.pawlak@taaonline.net
TAA seeks applications for Council of Fellows
TAA is seeking applications and nominations for candidates for membership in the association's Council of Fellows. TAA's Council of Fellows members are distinguished authors who have a long record of successful and diverse publication as a textbook author, an academic author, or both. Candidates should be authors whose textbooks or academic articles or books have established their presence in their field.
Council of Fellows members are chosen by a TAA Selection Committee based on a set of criteria which includes their level of participation in TAA activities; teaching excellence; quality and quantity of textbooks (if textbook authors); and quality and quantity of professional journal articles, monographs and edited books (if academic authors). A full set of criteria is enclosed.
New Council of Fellows members are inducted at the association's annual conference, at which time they receive a special engraved medallion and lifetime membership in TAA.
TAA's current Council of Fellows are Michael Sullivan, Lee Mountain, Everette E. Dennis, Mike Keedy, Franklin H. Silverman and Karl J. Smith, inducted in 1999; Thomas L. Wheelen and William R. Pasewark, inducted in 2000; Karen Hess, D. Stanley Eitzen and J. David Hunger, inducted in 2001; Charles D. Holland, inducted in 2002; Patrick G. McKeown, inducted in 2003; and Karen C. Timberlake and Marilyn T. "Winkie" Fordney inducted in 2005.
Applications must include documentation in support of the Council of Fellows criteria (Click here). Send your application and documentation to TAA, P.O. Box 56359, St. Petersburg, FL 33732-6359. Questions? Contact TAA headquarters at TextandAcademicAuthors@taaonline.net
The deadline for application to the TAA Council of Fellows is November 30, 2008. New members will be inducted at the 2009 TAA Conference in San Antonio, Texas, June 25-27.
Listen to recording of TAA Teleconference on online feedback tools for authors
TAA members can now listen to a recording of the September 25th TAA Teleconference "Make Your Book Better and Sales Bigger With Online Feedback Tools" presented by David Brake, founder and CEO of Content Connections: Click here to listen
In this 80-minute interactive teleconference, Brake described how to create simple but effective online "author-driven" surveys and the advantages of doing so.
Sign up for other upcoming TAA Teleconferences:
"How to Craft a Winning Textbook Proposal" (Oct. 9)
"Scholarly Writing: Strengthening Your Literature Review" (Oct. 17)
"Scholarly Publishing: Finding Support Through Peer Mentoring" (Nov. 13)
"How to Proactively Market Your Textbook" (Nov. 20)
Sign up by sending an e-mail to kim.pawlak@taaonline.net with the name of the teleconference, or sign up online.
Learn more about these teleconferences: Click here
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