January 17, 2019 – Cambridge, MA and Charlottesville, VA – The MIT Press (MITP) and Silverchair today announced the launch of MIT Press Direct, a new product built on the Silverchair Platform that facilitates discovery and access to MIT Press’s distinguished collection of ebook content.
Known for iconic design, rigorous scholarship, and creative technology, the MIT Press is a leading publisher of books and journals at the intersection of science, technology, and the arts. MIT Press Direct offers a cost-effective and easy-to-use way for libraries to offer MIT Press ebooks to their patrons.
Features include:
- Access to the press’s available ebooks, regardless of discipline, on a single unified platform for the first time—a “one-stop shop” for humanities, science, technology, and social sciences titles.
- Options include the “complete” collection, with nearly 3,000 backlist ebooks with approximately 150 new titles added each year, or subject-specific collections. Subject collections available at launch include economics, environmental science, philosophy, and science, technology, and society.
- Access to the frontlist comes with term access to the entire backfile for the duration of the year.
- DRM-free ebooks with chapter-level access for unlimited simultaneous users. This means that users can print, read online, and download at the chapter level.
- MARC and KBART records for easy data ingestion and COUNTER usage reports.
- Tiered pricing based on FTE and budget, with no ongoing maintenance fees.
“The MIT Press is committed to innovation, both in terms of what we publish and how we publish,” said Amy Brand, director of the MIT Press. “With the launch of MIT Press Direct, we can now provide direct access to thousands of new and classic MIT Press titles through a platform that is accessible, sustainable, and independent, under terms that are consistent with our values as a university-based publisher.”
MIT Press Direct will make nearly 3,000 ebooks available by the end of 2019, offering a broad range of books from its front- and backlist, including significant works in arts, architecture, biomedical sciences, business, cognitive science, cultural studies, design, digital humanities and new media, economics, education, energy, engineering, environmental science, evolution, game studies, humanities, information science, linguistics, machine learning and AI, neuroscience, and social sciences.
“MIT Press Direct is an elegant, responsive, full-feature ebook site that advances the fields to which the Press has contributed over the last 50 years,” said Terry Ehling, director of strategic initiatives at the MIT Press. “Delivering our high-value scholarly ebook content to a global community of scholars is a priority for us, and having this content live on the Silverchair Platform furthers that goal.”
A key factor in the Press’s selection of Silverchair as a partner was the need for a flexible platform that can accommodate diverse book formats, ranging from highly technical titles with LaTeX mathematical computations to heavily illustrated art and architecture volumes.
“It has been a pleasure working alongside the MIT Press in developing a platform for their renowned ebook collection, one that highlights their commitment to exceptional design and the advancement of research,” said Thane Kerner, Silverchair CEO. “The MIT Press joins a cohort of other distinguished university presses on a platform that is designed to support the changing and expanding needs of their users.”
MIT Press Direct is now available to institutional subscribers and trials are available. For more information, including pricing, please visit the MIT Press Direct website.
About the MIT Press – The MIT Press is a leading publisher of books and journals at the intersection of science, technology, and the arts. MIT Press books and journals are known for their intellectual daring, scholarly standards, and distinctive design. Since its founding in 1962, the MIT Press has been changing the rules of engagement between academic authors and their readers. Reflecting and amplifying the values of an educational institution that places a premium on experimentation, invention, and open information access, the MIT Press was one of the first publishers to exploit the potential of the internet. mitpress.mit.edu
About Silverchair – Silverchair integrates and delivers scholarly and professional content from a single omni-format hosting platform – journals, books, video, custom formats, and more. The Silverchair Platform provides distinctive online sites, unique products, and advanced technologies to STM and humanities publishers, professional societies, and the federal government, propelling their content to greater reach and impact. www.silverchair.com
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