- Save the Date: Tenth International Conference on Textbooks and Educational Media, Sept. 3-5, 2009
- IARTEM holds mini-conference on textbooks in Madagascar Oct. 6-8, 2008
- Attend three-day course on textbook effectiveness
- New web-based copyright licensing service for independent content creators
- Publishers lead national effort to better serve students with disabilities
- Pearson exec blogs on educational publishing
- New Forums Press sponsoring 2009 TAA Conference
- Spring 2009 TAA Teleconference Series
- Transcript of TAA teleconference on Strengthening Literature Review now available
- Contributing Member Roth Wilkofsky
- BTAA: Jan Lyons
- Rippy awarded $150 TAA Publication Grant
- Featured Member Profile: Christy Keeler: Blogging keeps author on track to write regularly
- BTAA: Mary Kay Switzer
- Copyright Clearance Center sponsoring 2009 TAA Conference
- Content Connections is sponsoring the 2009 TAA Conference
- Flat World Knowledge is sponsoring the 2009 TAA Conference
- 2010 TAA Conference in Minneapolis, MN
- December 2008 Academic Author Executive Director Message
Save the Date: Tenth International Conference on Textbooks and Educational Media, Sept. 3-5, 2009
The International Association for Research on Textbooks and Educational Media (IARTEM) in co-operation with Universidade de Santiago de Compostela invites professionals from all over the world who work in the field of textbooks and educational media research and development to participate in the tenth IARTEM Conference in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, September 3rd - 5th 2009. The conference theme: "Local, National and Transnational Identities in Textbooks and Educational Media." Visit the IARTEM website for more information: www.iartem.no
IARTEM holds mini-conference on textbooks in Madagascar Oct. 6-8, 2008
by Ragnhild Lund
An IARTEM mini-conference was held in Antananarivo, Madagascar, 6th-8th October 2008: Understanding and Improving the Role of Textbooks and Educational Media in a Resource-Challenged Environment. There were 33 participants from nine different countries: Australia, Denmark, Madagascar, Norway, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, the United States and Zambia. Most of them were from different parts of the host country.
Participants were greeted by the deputy chief of mission at The American Cultural Center / American Embassy in Antananarivo, where the conference took place. The IARTEM president, Susanne Knudsen, and the Conference Coordinator, Micheline Ravelonanahary, addressed the audience before the Minister of Education in Madagascar opened the conference. Eighteen papers were presented in six different sessions, covering a range of issues related to textbooks and educational media.
The titles of the sessions were:
- How can textbooks and educational media be used effectively in African learning contexts?
- How can materials designed for well-resourced countries be adapted for use in resource-challenged environments?
- In what ways do textbooks and educational media help improve studentsÕ performance in the classroom?
- The importance of quality, evaluation and selection of textbooks and educational media.
On the second day of the conference, participants were taken to a primary and a secondary school, where they met teachers, students as well as administrative and library staff. A visit was also arranged to the Teaching Resource Center in Antananarivo and participants were also offered guided tours of the city.
Attend three-day course on textbook effectiveness
 Download PDF for more info |
The University of Utrecht (Netherlands) and the Stirling Centre for International Publishing and Communication (Scotland) will be holding a three-day course on textbook writing and design at the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands, April 27-29, 2009.
The course, "What makes an effective textbook?", will include sessions on evaluating textbooks; the pedagogical approach of textbooks; textbook design and presentation; the quality of textbook content; authors management; and how the evaluation of textbooks plays a role in marketing them. Course leaders are Arno Reints, director of CLU, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands, and James McCall, Stirling Centre for International Publishing and Communication.
The conference fee is 645 Euros ($898). The deadline for registration is February 24, 2009. For more information on the conference or to register, visit the CLU website at http://www.clu.nl or email course leader Arno Reints at a.reints@clu.nl
New web-based copyright licensing service for independent content creators
Copyright Clearance Center, the world's largest provider of copyright licensing solutions, announced the beta launch of Ozmo (www.ozmo.com), a web-based service that makes it easy for independent content creators to license the use of their work for commercial purposes and for content users to tap into the wealth of user-generated content found online.
Ozmo allows artists and writers to select their license terms and set the price for the use of their content. CCC handles the entire licensing process and all payments go through Amazon’s Flexible Payment Service when a license is purchased. With Ozmo, buyers know instantly that they have the right to use the content and sellers know how their content is being used.
There are no set-up fees with Ozmo and content creators can license as much content as they want. Payment is collected from the buyer when the rights are purchased. Ozmo also helps sellers track and manage sales and buying trends. Ozmo supports the Creative Commons CC+ protocol for bridging the gap between commercial and non-commercial licensing. Content creators can apply the Creative Commons link for non-commercial use, and the Ozmo link for commercial use.
“We applaud the release of Ozmo, not only because it represents Copyright Clearance Center’s commitment to the CC+ protocol, but also because Ozmo provides an excellent commercial peer to Creative Commons’ public license”, said Mike Linksvayer, vice president of Creative Commons. Ozmo was created by the rights licensing experts at Copyright Clearance Center. A not-for-profit company founded in 1978, CCC is the world’s largest provider of rights licensing services. In just the last year, CCC distributed more than $135 million in royalties to rightsholders. CCC created Ozmo in response to a market need for a comprehensive solution to license user-generated content for commercial use.
"Advances in digital technology have opened new commercial markets for images," said Eugene Mopsik, executive director of the American Society of Media Photographers. "OZMO provides an easy, fast and legally secure new channel for online sale and license of images. Ozmo’s contributors and their customers will benefit from an e-commerce system based upon industry standards that simplify the licensing process and ensure a precise mutual understanding of the rights associated with every image.”
To get started, users need only create a free Ozmo profile. Then, the content creator selects his or her license terms and pricing, and registers the work with Ozmo. Sellers can add an image, banner or bio that will be displayed with their work. Profile information can even be pulled over directly from Facebook. Using Ozmo is easy because it works with content where ever it resides online. Content creators never have to re-enter their work; Ozmo simply links back to the original host location.
Buyers, such as design firms, publishers, bloggers and other journalists, who want to tap in to the fresh content available through Ozmo, can do so by searching the Ozmo website or clicking on the Ozmo link wherever they find it online. CCC handles the billing, the buyer receives the license by email and the content creator gets paid.
“We realize that licensing may not be the first thing most people think about when they create or post original content on the Web,” said Bill Burger, vice president of marketing at Copyright Clearance Center. “With Ozmo, content creators get paid for their work and also get the satisfaction of knowing how their work is being used. And advertising and marketing firms get easy access to the immense supply of online creative content with the peace of mind that they are using it with permission.”
Publishers lead national effort to better serve students with disabilities
The Association of American Publishers (AAP) announced its agreement with the Alternative Media Access Center (AMAC) (http://www.amac.uga.edu/), an initiative of the Georgia Board of Regents and the University of Georgia, to develop and launch the AccessText Network (http://www.accesstext.org/), a comprehensive, national online system that will make it easier and quicker for students with print-related disabilities, such as blindness, to obtain the textbooks they need for their college courses.
"Many college students with disabilities are struggling to use required or recommended print textbooks that are essential to their course success," said Patricia Schroeder, AAP's president and chief executive officer. "The new AccessText Network will improve the way electronic versions of print textbooks are delivered to campus-based disability student service (DSS) offices from publishers and streamline the permission process for scanning copies of print textbooks when publisher files are unavailable. By improving the efficiencies of our present process, AccessText will facilitate quicker access to content for more students. The AccessText Network is leveraging QuickBase¨, an online database powered by Intuit Inc., to enable publishers and colleges to effectively combine and share their resources and expertise to meet students' needs. AccessText Network, scheduled for beta launch in February 2009, will ensure that institutions can more easily obtain information about publishers' course materials, request electronic text files and use more efficient acquisition and distribution channels."
"AccessText Network is the result of a multifaceted effort that included talks with disability service professionals working on the front line, a nationwide review of current practices, exploration of existing distribution systems, and collaboration with the AAP member publishers," said Mike Shuttic, president of the Association on Higher Education And Disability (AHEAD), the nation's largest organization for campus-based disability service professionals. "I believe AccessText Network is a significant step forward that combines stakeholder resources and addresses the rights of students with disabilities. I encourage every member of the disability community to coalesce around this solution, ensuring its success."
"AMAC is energized about working in conjunction with the disability community to guarantee AccessText becomes the conduit between the publishing world and post-secondary institutions' disability programs nationwide. AMAC is charged with making AccessText the national nucleus of post-secondary distribution of approved alternative textbook file exchanges, training, and technical support. Our goal is to make the college disability professional's job easier and, in the long run, help save institutions from the high cost of producing electronic textbooks for their students with disabilities," said Christopher Lee, Ph.D., Department Head/Director of AMAC. "We're also extremely lucky to have Intuit's QuickBase as the technology behind the AccessText Network helping us be successful."
AccessText Network is being funded through donations from publishers Cengage Learning; CQ Press; Macmillan; McGraw-Hill Education; Pearson; Reed Elsevier Inc.; John Wiley & Sons; and W.W. Norton.
Pearson exec blogs on educational publishing
An educational publishing executive at Pearson Education, Alison M. Pendergast, blogs on education, technology, publishing, digital content and marketing at her blog, http://www.alisonpendergast.com. Recent posts have been on open source and e-textbooks.
New Forums Press sponsoring 2009 TAA Conference
New Forums Press, Inc. is sponsoring the 2009 TAA Conference with a donation of 31 copies of Robert Boice's Professors as Writers: A Self-Help Guide to Productive Writing. New Forums Press, Inc. publishes and distributes information packages relevant to staff, program and organization development issues in higher education, as well as histories of general interest, primarily in the form of books, journals and newsletters. They also provide personalized publishing services to a variety of organizations and individuals. Visit the New Forums Press, Inc. website: Click here
Visit 2009 TAA Conference web site
Spring 2009 TAA Teleconference Series
Sign up to participate in one or more TAA Teleconferences being held in February, March and April 2009. TAA Teleconferences are free for members. Sign up (click here for form) or email Kim Pawlak at kim.pawlak@taaonline.net (include your name, email address and the title of the teleconference(s) in which you want to participate.)
Upcoming 2009 TAA Teleconferences include:
Writing and Editing Effectively Using 'Fast Writing' and 'Slow Editing'
Thursday, February 19, 12 noon Central Time (10 a.m. Pacific; 11 a.m. Mountain; 1 p.m. Eastern)
Presented by Dr. Sonja Foss, Professor of Communication, University of Colorado, and Dr. William Waters, an assistant professor of English at the University of Houston-Downtown
You know what you want to say—the ideas you want to communicate in your article or dissertation. Now you want to put your ideas into print. You want to turn them into prose as quickly as possible and then polish that prose. This teleconference is designed to help you do that. The objective of the teleconference is not to teach you how to write, but it will help you make the processes of writing and revising easier and more effective if they are difficult for you.
The teleconference focuses on two key processes that allow you to write effectively—fast writing and slow editing. Fast writing means writing as fast as you can in a state of uninhibited invention, getting your ideas on paper in any form. Slow editing follows, and it is a serial, systematic process that includes the two separate steps of editing and proofreading. Foss and Waters will share strategies for engaging in fast writing and slow editing that will help you move your rough drafts more efficiently and effectively to high-quality finished products.
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Negotiation of Author/Publisher Contracts for the Experienced Author
Wednesday, March 4, 12 p.m. Central Time (10 a.m. PST, 11 a.m. Mountain, 1 p.m. Eastern)
Presented by Michael R. Lennie, Esq., Lennie Literary & Author's Attorneys
This discussion is for experienced authors who have more advanced contract questions and who would like to share their contract experiences with fellow participants. Discussion items will include: How to Prepare for Negotiations; The Key Concepts for Successful Negotiations; Strategies for New Edition Amendments vs. Contracts for New Works; Big Advance, Little Advance, No Advance?; Electronic Rights Update; BEWARE! Publisher Supplements ("PubSupps"); Are There Rights The Author Should Retain?; Scaled Royalty Rates; Retroactive Royalty Rates; Canadian Royalty Rates; What Sub-rights Are Likely to be Exploited?; Rates for Subsidiary Rights; Who Is The Publisher?; Phase out Royalties; Re-openers; The Importance of the Competing Works Clause; Right of Approval vs. Right of Consultation; Cover/Art/Photography; Supplement Authors & Supplements; Marketing Plan/Advertising Copy; Reserving the Right to Hire An Assistant; The Timing of Supplements; Audit Clause/Inadvertent Shortening of the Statute of Limitations. Lennie will also share a few sample improved contract clauses.
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You Want To Write a Textbook? Here's How To Do It!
Monday, April 13, 12 p.m. Central Time (10 a.m. Pacific; 11 a.m. Mountain; 1 p.m. Eastern)
Presented by Robert Christopherson, Professor Emeritus of Geography, American River College (1970-2000), and author of the leading physical geography texts in the US and Canada
Writing a textbook is extremely focusing, extends your classroom to the world, and is potentially rewarding. Yet, in reality, everyone (author, editor, publisher, colleagues) assumes that everyone knows what they are doing. But they don't! Every project is allowed to roll along burdened by its own idiosyncrasies. A goal of this discussion is to place you ahead of the curve, to simplify the process, and to share experiences. This is not a complete account of how to do it, for that would take a book. This is merely one author's opinion, which is under constant revision as each day's lesson is absorbed.
The original task of writing a textbook is not what it seems to be--that is, talking about it, outlining it, sketching it, discussing it with publishers, telling relatives about it. These preliminaries are different than actually writing the manuscript, but critical and necessary for the author must convince him or herself to do the project. This discussion will hopefully provide a starting point for your efforts: the project, writing studio, outline, style/writing guide, prospectus, research/writing, computer, art manuscript preparation, chapter production, publisher launch, sales/marketing, roaylties, taxes, and future revisions.
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How to apply mainstream book publicity strategies to academia
Thursday, April 23, 11 a.m. Central Time (9 a.m. Pacific; 10 a.m. Mountain; 12 p.m. Eastern)
Presented by Michelle A. Blackley, Literary Publicist, Don't Judge a Book by its Cover
With today's viral marketplace even academic authors can become strong competitors in the popular fiction and non-fiction book categories. Learn what publicity strategies work for mainstream writers and how they can be applied in academia. Some publishers do supply their own marketing efforts to your campaign, but what can you do outside their influence in the marketplace? Getting in libraries, local bookstores and online tours, sales and content are just a few categories we'll cover.
Transcript of TAA teleconference on Strengthening Literature Review now available
The transcript of the 2008 TAA Teleconference, "Scholarly Writing: Strengthening Your Literature Review" is now available: Click here
Contributing Member Roth Wilkofsky
TAA thanks Contributing Member Roth Wilkofsky.
BTAA: Jan Lyons
Jan Lyons, adjunct assistant professor of engineering management, information and systems, at Southern Methodist University, recently published the revised edition of her text, Risk Management for Technical Professionals (2008, currently available at Lulu.com). She also recently published an article in Leadership and Management in Engineering, entitled, "Objectively Assessing Risk in a Complex World." (October, 2008).
Rippy awarded $150 TAA Publication Grant
Marguerite Rippy, an associate professor of English at Marymount University in Virginia, has been awarded a $150 TAA Publication Grant that will allow her to incorporate a copyrighted photograph of Orson Welles from his unfinished film adaptation of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, in her book, Orson Welles and the Unfinished RKO Projects: A Postmodern Perspective, which will be published by Southern Illinois University Press in Spring 2009.
"The grant was tremendously helpful to me, since neither my press nor my university have resources to subsidize photographic copyright fees, so I am paying most of these fees out of my own pocket," she said.
The photograph of Welles that Rippy will be using in her book is from a rarely seen series of promotional stills taken by Louise Dahl-Wolfe, whose photographic rights are now held by the University of Arizona's Center for Creative Photography. "It is a key photograph because it represents Welles' concept of a first-person singular narrative at the center of this film," she said. "The photo depicts him standing in front of an equation that says 'Eye=I'. Although Welles did not finish this film for RKO, the first-person singular interrogation proved central to his next film project as well--the famous Citizen Kane."
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. (Click for more info on grants)
"I read about the TAA Publication Grant through a mailing I received as a member, and I applied simply because the timing was incredibly fortuitous," she said. "TAA's mailing arrived the same day that I was working on copyright clearances and fees for the cover art and insert photographs for my forthcoming book, and it just seemed like a natural match. I've been enjoying my TAA membership in terms of reading advice and commentaries from the email listserv, and it seemed like a great opportunity to further enjoy TAA's resources."
Rippy's forthcoming book on Orson Welles provides an in-depth examination of Welles' unfinished RKO projects: "I train a postmodern lens on four emerging narrative modes that came to define Welles' work: deconstructions of the first-person singular; adaptations of classic texts for mass media; explorations of the self via primitivism; and examinations of the line between reality and fiction. These four narrative styles greatly influenced the development of modern mass media entertainment, including today’s popular mockumentaries and reality television. Orson Welles and the Unfinished RKO Projects documents Welles’s emergence as a storyteller who would shape culture for decades to come."
The book's intended audience is film and media studies scholars, Welles fans, and cultural studies students and professors.
Rippy received her Ph.D. in English and performance studies from Indiana University, and her M.A. in English from Vanderbilt University. She has published several articles on film and drama, addressing topics ranging from the evolution of black female sexuality in cinema, to Orson Welles’ adaptations of Charles Dickens. Her film reviews have appeared in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Featured Member Profile: Christy Keeler
Blogging keeps author on track to write regularly
Christy Keeler, a pedagogy scholar/consultant for the Teaching American History Grant for Las Vegas's Clark County School District, uses a blog to motivate herself to write and as a means of personal accountability.
BTAA: Mary Kay Switzer
Two original plays and a folk opera written by Mary Kay Switzer, an associate professor of communication at California Polytechnical State University in Pomona, California, will be performed by the Cultural Alliance of the Pass Area Performing Artists in March, April, and May. Kate DiCamillo has also agreed to allow Switzer to adapt her Mercy Watson series for the stage. DiCamillo is the author of Winn Dixie.
Copyright Clearance Center sponsoring 2009 TAA Conference
The Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) is sponsoring the Roundtable Discussion Luncheon at the 2009 TAA Conference. CCC creates innovative licensing solutions for the seamless sharing of knowledge. Its "BeyondTheBookCast" (beyondthebookcast.com) is a free podcast produced by Beyond the Book, the educational program of the not-for-profit Copyright Clearance Center. Learn more about CCC at www.copyright.com
Content Connections is sponsoring the 2009 TAA Conference
Content Connections is sponsoring the 2009 TAA Conference at the $200 level. Content Connections is a technology-based publishing services company with a social media-infused process helps publishers, authors and creators of any kind of content make powerful connections with their audience. Visit the Content Connections website: Click here
Flat World Knowledge is sponsoring the 2009 TAA Conference
Flat World Knowledge is sponsoring the 2009 TAA Conference at the $200 level. Flat World Knowledge's open college textbooks are written by leading experts, and are peer- reviewed, edited, and highly developed. Visit the Flat World Knowledge website: Click here
2010 TAA Conference in Minneapolis, MN
The 2010 TAA Conference on Text and Academic Authoring will be held in Minneapolis, MN at the Ramada Mall of America, June 24-26. Save the date!
December 2008
TAAF partners with Palm Beach Community College to develop mentoring program
 TAA Executive Director Richard T. Hull |
This month, The Text and Academic Authors Foundation (TAAF) partnered with Palm Beach Community College (FL) to create the “Mentor Education Diversity Initiative” (MEDI), a project that will have great potential for realizing measurable and meaningful change in minority representation in textbook and academic authorship. Grounded in national initiatives designed to breakdown barriers to diversity in education (e.g. STEM disciplines), MEDI will provide innovative technology and instructional experiences for students and teachers (grades 8 to 20) and faculty of higher education.
TAAF’s partnership with Palm Beach Community College includes writing a cooperative grant application for the Florida Department of Education’s Governor’s Summer Program in support of MEDI.
The project, through its MEDI Professional Learning Community (MEDI-PLC), seeks to create a number of mentoring relationships between gifted minority secondary school students and minority faculty in state colleges and universities. These mentoring relationships will involve weekly extra-curricular reading and writing assignments by the faculty to the students, with the results uploaded in a commonly-accessible online database. After six to eight weeks of activity, mentors and mentees will come together for a TAA-sponsored summer workshop on textbook writing. The aim of the workshop will be to produce a model textbook that will demonstrate how such collaborative efforts can result in a publishable textbook. This “blended learning” model has been adopted to enable the participants to create academic works of excellence by scholars of all ages. We also hope that by introducing minority faculty to the process of textbook authoring it will stimulate them to undertake their own textbook writing projects.
The aim of MEDI is to produce a model that can be replicated, through foundation and state education grant support, in states across the country. It represents the first significant effort of TAAF to fulfill a long-stated objective to improve the involvement of minorities in the production of text materials for the elementary and high school grades and at the college and university level by seeking to develop textbook authoring best practices in the current generation of minority faculty, while building the basis for generations of minority faculty to come. Recognizing that we live in a global community, and that the United States is increasingly becoming more diverse, TAAF has taken a leadership role to meet the challenge.
According to the Southeast Regional Education Board (SREB),“A diverse faculty with a variety of scholarly perspectives will produce a stronger educational experience for all students; colleges and universities must take into account that they have to serve an increasingly diverse student body and have to prepare students to deal with this diversity. The faculty should reflect this diversity; soon after the beginning of the next century, one in three Americans will be of ethnic minority background, and by 2050, according to projections, one in two Americans will be an ethnic minority. The nation’s economic health will depend upon whether these people are a successful and integral part of society.”
Because MEDI's focus is to learn and practice scholastic authorship skills over a measurable and meaningful period of time by means of repeated-engaged learning experiences with a college-level mentor educator, diversity in education is fostered by receiving instruction and practice in the elements of knowledge generation: collaborative networking; community outreach; scientific authorship; and mentoring. Overall, these comprise the backbone of a new economy for equity in learning.
I will keep our members informed about the success in pursuing this initial grant, and hope to report in a few months the progress toward achieving this major initiative. I thank Dr. Jay Matteson, TAAF’s current grant writer, for his extraordinary service in bringing this grant effort to its present state.
Richard Hull,
TAA Executive Director
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