Open Society Publishing Forum

30 October 1997, Issue 9


**************************************************************** 
OPEN SOCIETY PUBLISHING FORUM
OSI Publishing Center, Budapest, 30 October 1997, Issue 9 
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In this issue
-From the editor
-Foundation Publishing:
Frankfurt-Budapest Training for New Publishing Staff Loan Program 
Round-Table Discussion in Frankfurt
New Translation Project Competition in Macedonia
Exhibition of the Titles Supported by the Latvian Foundation Staff 
Change at the Foundations and at CEU Press
-Foundation Publishing - Forthcoming:
Electronic Publishing Conference in Budapest
-Publishing General
"Digital Object Identifier" Launched at Frankfurt
-Translation Project - Update

=======================================================

Dear Colleagues,

The Frankfurt Book Fair is the focus of this issue. First you can read 
a description of a training for the new publishing staff in the CIS 
foundations, then about a round-table discussion on loan schemes, and 
finally about the Digital Object Identifier system launched during the 
fair. The DOI - the ISBN of electronic publishing - is likely to have 
a profound impact on various aspects of EP, especially copyright.

A change is introduced in this issue. From now on we will always try 
and inform you about Translation Project competitions in various 
countries. Macedonia starts the list.

Please note our new name, which we will begin to use in January - OSI 
Center for Publishing Development.

With best wishes,

Jerzy Celichowski

======================================================= Foundation 
Publishing
=======================================================

FRANKFURT-BUDAPEST TRAINING FOR NEW PUBLISHING STAFF

A training for new foundation publishing staff was organized by the 
OSI Publishing Center in Frankfurt and Budapest on 14-22 October. The 
Frankfurt leg coincided with the Frankfurt Book Fair to give the 
participants first-hand exposure to the world book industry. The aim 
of the training was to give participants with varied backgrounds a 
condensed but wide-ranging introduction to the publishing industry. 

The participants visited publishers at the fair and also participated 
in presentations on book data services, copyright, marketing, 
textbooks, financial management in publishing, electronic publishing, 
and the Internet, took part in a round-table discussion on loan 
schemes [see below], and visited a bank cooperating with the Hungarian 
foundation in the implementation of a loan scheme, and a variety of 
bookshops in Budapest.
[based on information from Zsigmond Szabo, Program Assistant at the 
OSI Publishing Center, <zsszabo@osi.hu>]

LOAN PROGRAM ROUND-TABLE DISCUSSION IN FRANKFURT

An exchange of experiences connected with Soros Foundations' Loan 
Programs took place during the Frankfurt Book Fair on 16 October. 
Representatives of the Hungarian and Russian foundations, which have 
already started a loan scheme (in Russia the program is independent 
of the OSI Publishing Center), presented their very different 
experiences. Publishing staff of other foundations, especially those 
which are now at an advanced level of preparatory stage were also 
present.

Gabriella Szilard explained the structure of the Hungarian model and 
answered technical questions. She mentioned that starting next year, 
her foundation plans to have more than two rounds of competition per 
year. Elena Samoilo presented the difficulties that her foundation 
experienced in the implementation of a loan program in Russia. The 
main problems were connected with the preparatory stage. Enough time 
should be left to design the concept of a project and to build up 
relationship with a partner bank. The repayment should be done 
frequently in small installments. Elena stressed the role of an open 
competition and monitoring of loans; she also encouraged caution in 
accepting collateral. 

The foundations about to launch their programs (Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, 
Georgia) briefed the participants about the stage of preparations. 
Kyrgyzstan has already announced the program in September, and the 
others are about to do so it in the coming weeks. All the programs 
are designed differently, based on the needs of the local book 
industries. The foundations plan to pilot the program during the first 
year and expand only after that. It was agreed that local partner 
banks and experts should be identified before the program is launched. 
Financial training, of both publishers and the foundation staff, 
should be an essential part of the program.

(Many thanks from the participants to Elena Samoilo for her sharing of 
the lessons learned by her foundation) 
[based on information from Erzsebet Timar, the Director of the Loan 
Program of the OSI Publishing Center <etimar@osi.hu>]

NEW TRANSLATION PROJECT COMPETITION IN MACEDONIA

A new CEU Translation Project competition was held in Macedonia in 
October. The publishing board decided to support translation of 
following titles:

Into Macedonian

Adorno, Theodor W.: Aesthetische Theorie Howard, Michael: War in 
European History Woolf, Virginia: A Room of One's Own Mill, John 
Stuart: On Liberty 
MacIntyre, Alasdair: After Virtue

Into Albanian

Ostrogorski, Georgije: Geschichte des byzantinischen Staates 

[KM]

EXHIBITION OF TITLES SUPPORTED BY THE LATVIAN FOUNDATION

Among the events organized on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of 
the Soros Foundation - Latvia was a book and electronic publication 
exhibition displayed in the window of the Latvian National Library in 
October. The Latvian foundation spent over 2 million dollars on 
various publishing projects during the last five years. The 225 titles 
exhibited represented the various programs that made their publication 
possible. Next to the numerous textbooks and teaching materials were 
translations of social sciences and humanities published within the 
`Man and Society' series (implemented in part jointly with the OSI 
Publishing Center) as well as law titles. Among the exhibits there 
were 15 publications in minority languages as Russian, Romany, 
Estonian and Ukrainian. Electronic publishing was represented mainly 
by various home pages and interactive multimedia teaching materials in 
geography, cultural history, etc. [based on information from Ilze 
Freiberga of the Soros Foundation - Latvia <ifreib@sfl.lv>]

STAFF CHANGE AT THE FOUNDATIONS

George Genchev, former Publishing Coordinator in Bulgaria has been 
appointed the Executive Director of the Open Society Foundation - 
Sofia. Elene Gabedava of the Open Society Georgia Foundation has been 
nominated the Manager of Programs (she will keep working on publishing 
programs). Congratulations!

We bid farewell from Marina Ghitoc and Mircea Stefancu of the Soros 
Foundation for an Open Society - Romania leaving their foundation 
because of restructuring taking place there. Both of them contributed 
greatly to the development of publishing programs on both national and 
regional levels. Marina piloted the CEU Translation Project in the 
region as early as 1995. [JC]

.. AND AT CEU PRESS

Walda Metcalf has resigned from her position as Director of CEU Press, 
and is returning to the United States for family reasons. Klara 
Takacsy-Nagy, former Editorial Director of Akademia Publishers in 
Budapest, has been appointed acting Director of the Press.

The staff of the Press and the OSI Publishing Center would like to 
thank Walda foe her dedication and hard work over the past year, and 
wish her the best of success in her future endeavours.

======================================================= Foundation 
Publishing - Forthcoming
=======================================================

ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING CONFERENCE IN BUDAPEST

The Electronic Publishing Development Program of the OSI Publishing 
Center will be co-sponsoring an international conference on electronic 
publishing "Towards the Information-Rich Society", to be held in 
Budapest on 20-22 April 1998.

To ensure significant regional participation the EPDP will be 
assisting up to 40 from the region to attend the conference.

The EPDP is particularly interested in presentations from the region 
and would appreciate help of the publishing staff of Soros foundations 
in targeting specific publishers or projects that would be appropriate 
to present papers on technical, human and economic aspects of 
electronic publishing at the conference.

Questions should be directed to Viktoria Levai, Coordinator, 
Electronic Publishing Development Program of the OSI Publishing Center 
(e-mail <vlevai@osi.hu> or telephone 36 1 327 3014 ext 2006).

The deadline for submitting abstracts is 12 noon Monday 17 November.

======================================================= 
Publishing General
=======================================================

DIGITAL OBJECT IDENTIFIER LAUNCHED AT FRANKFURT

The DOI (Digital Object Identifier) for electronic texts on the 
Internet was launched at the Frankfurt Book Fair on 15 October. 

The DOI is designed to be an identification system for electronic 
publications, in the same way that ISBN is an identification system 
for printed books. It can be used for any type of digital data 
transmitted over the Internet: text, image, video or audio.

The DOI System was designed by the American Association of Publishers 
and others with the purpose of enabling electronic copyright 
management systems, linking customers with publishers, and assisting 
electronic commerce. Unlike a normal Internet link, the DOI can be 
easily updated as the location of the document changes. The DOI system 
has two mani parts: an identifier and a directory.

1. The identifier is a special number which contains all the 
necessarily information to identify the publisher and also the content 
of a particular document. Each document "tagged" in this was contains 
a special DOI icon.

2. The DOI directory (located on an Internet server in the US) keeps 
track of the location of an item in case it changes its ownership or 
is moved. When a user clicks on a DOI icon, a request is sent via the 
Internet to the central directory which stores the current location of 
the document. This location is sent back to the user's Internet 
browser, which will automatically goes to the given address. When the 
object is moved from one place to another, the directory is 
automatically updated with the object's new location, so it remains 
reliable and accurate.

For further details please visit http://ww.doi.org
[based on information from Laszlo Szeibert, Regional Web Publishing 
Manager of the OSI Publishing Center <szeibert@osi.hu>]

======================================================= Translation 
Project - Update
=======================================================

New titles published within the project:

ALBANIA

Le Goff, Jacques: La civilisation de l'Occident medieval, grant 
$8,325, copyright fee $500, $216/ author's sheet

Dumont, Louis: Essais sur l'individualisme: Une perspective 
anthropologique sur l'ideologie moderne, grant $5,905, copyright fee 
$560, $293/author's sheet

BULGARIA

Radcliffe-Brown, A.R.: Structure and Function in Primitive Society, 
grant $3,404, copyright fee $375, $290/author's sheet

LATVIA

Wittgenstein, Ludwig: Philosophische Untersuchungen, grant $5,555, 
$426/author's sheet

ROMANIA

Frisch, Helmut: Theories of Inflation, grant $2,500, copyright fee 
$1,500, $320/author's sheet

Nozick, Robert: Anarchy, State and Utopia, grant: $3,670, copyright 
fee: $500, $167/author's sheet 

UKRAINE

Braudel, Fernand: Civilisation materielle, economie et capitalisme: 
15e-18e siecle, Volume 1.

Foucault, Michel: Histoire de la sexualite (vol. 1)

YUGOSLAVIA

Dahl, Robert: Polyarchy, grant: $5,231, $396/author's sheet

**************************************************************** The 
OSI Regional Publishing Center will be changing its name to OSI Center 
for Publishing Development, or "OSI Publishing Center" for short. The 
change will officially take effect in January 1998; both names can be 
used interchangeably until then. 
****************************************************************  

See also: #16'98 ] #15'98 ] #14'98 ] #13'98 ] #12'98 ] #11'97 ] #10'97 ] [ #9'97 ] #8'97 ] #7'97 ] #6'97 ] #5'97 ] #4'97 ] #3'97 ] #2'97 ] #1'97 ]