Alexander Street Press
Encyclopedia
Alexander Street Press LLC is a premier database publisher in the humanities and social sciences . Like Ebsco, Proquest
, Gale Cengage, and the Cambridge Information Group
, it's engaged in 'born native' digital publishing.
Alexander Street Press was founded in May 2000 in Alexandria
, Virginia
, by Stephen Rhind-Tutt (President), Janice Cronin (CFO), and Eileen Lawrence (Vice President, Sales and Marketing). Don McCrae and Ron Rietdyk were also founders in non-executive roles. Graham Dimmock, Will Whalen and Pat Carlson completed the management team, handling development and production respectively. Laura Gosling, Daryl Baker, John O'Keefe, Kelly Connor, Jennifer Hewitt, George Chinnery, and Christina Keller were the earliest employees. As of August 2010, the company had grown to more than 80 employees and offices in the US, China, Brazil, and the UK, with sales staff and agents around the world.
The company's first product was North American Women's Letters and Diaries, a collection of 150,000 pages of letters and diaries by women from colonial times through the 1950s. Charter customers included Boston College
, the California Digital Library
(for all campuses of the University of California System), Columbia University
, Emory University
, Harvard University
, Johns Hopkins University
, Michigan State University
, New York University
, Ohio State University
, Penn State University, University of Chicago
, University of Notre Dame
, University of Wisconsin–Madison
, Vassar College
, and Yale University
.
In 2000 and in collaboration with the ARTFL project at the University of Chicago the company began using semantic indexing techniques in its Humanities databases. It created metadata elements for gender, age, and sexual orientation of characters within plays; author nationality, birth and death place, as well as where and when an item was written. These elements were then combined with full-text search to allow material to be analyzed in new ways.
In 2003 the company began a major partnership with The Center for the Historical Study of Women and Gender at the State University of New York to publish Women and Social Movements
. This has subsequently become a leading site for the study of women's history
In November 2004, Alexander Street acquired the principal assets of Classical International, a London and New York-based publisher of streaming music for libraries. This led to a new range of music publications, including a partnership with the Smithsonian Institution
to provide Smithsonian Global Sound for Libraries and African American Song. One of the founders of Classical International, Tim Lloyd, is currently COO at Alexander Street.
In November 2005 Alexander Street acquired the range of religious products produced by Ad Fontes,LLC, including The Digital Library of Classic Protestant Texts and The Digital Library of the Catholic Reformation.
In 2005 the company expanded into Europe, setting up an office in Stevenage, UK. In 2007 it began an office in Shanghai, China under the leadership of Jia Jun Zhu and Ning Zhu. These offices are complemented by individuals working in Brazil, Australia and New Zealand.
In October 2006 the company acquired the assets of University Music Editions, a small microfilm publisher specializing in the publication of scores, journals and other musically oriented publications. These collections were subsequently released as part of Classical Scores Library.
Late in 2006 the company began development of online collections of video. Theatre in Video was published in April 2007 and has been followed by a succession of online streaming video collections. Using techniques such as semantic indexing, initially developed for textual databases, it was an early provider of synchronized, scrolling transcripts that allow the watcher to read ahead. At the 2010 Midsummer American Library Association the company advertised 9 streaming video collections spanning more than 9,000 individual video titles.
In April 2007, Alexander Street acquired the principal products of HarpWeek, LLC publisher of Harper's Weekly and Lincoln and the Civil War.
As of January 2010, Alexander Street Press had estimated revenues in excess of $12m per annum. The company claims more than 1,500 agreements with authors, estates, publishers, film studios and music labels, including Warner Bros.
, EMI
, and a large number of university presses. Its catalog lists more than 70 products in Anthropology, Education, Counseling and Therapy, Diversity Studies, Women's History and Literature, Music, Latin American Literature, Drama, Film, and History.
In September 2010 Alexander Street acquired Microtraining Associates, LLC, a specialist producer and distributor of therapy and counseling video. In December 2010 the company acquired Filmakers Library, Inc, a distributor of issue based documentaries.
ProQuest
ProQuest LLC is an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based electronic publisher and microfilm publisher.It provides archives of sources such as newspapers, periodicals, dissertations, and aggregated databases of many types. Its content is estimated at 125 billion digital pages...
, Gale Cengage, and the Cambridge Information Group
Cambridge Information Group
Cambridge Information Group is a privately owned group of information services and publishing companies and educational institutions. It was founded in 1971 by Robert N. Snyder and Philip E. Hixon and is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland. As of 2007, CIG’s operating companies are ProQuest, R.R....
, it's engaged in 'born native' digital publishing.
Alexander Street Press was founded in May 2000 in Alexandria
Alexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
, Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, by Stephen Rhind-Tutt (President), Janice Cronin (CFO), and Eileen Lawrence (Vice President, Sales and Marketing). Don McCrae and Ron Rietdyk were also founders in non-executive roles. Graham Dimmock, Will Whalen and Pat Carlson completed the management team, handling development and production respectively. Laura Gosling, Daryl Baker, John O'Keefe, Kelly Connor, Jennifer Hewitt, George Chinnery, and Christina Keller were the earliest employees. As of August 2010, the company had grown to more than 80 employees and offices in the US, China, Brazil, and the UK, with sales staff and agents around the world.
The company's first product was North American Women's Letters and Diaries, a collection of 150,000 pages of letters and diaries by women from colonial times through the 1950s. Charter customers included Boston College
Boston College
Boston College is a private Jesuit research university located in the village of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA. The main campus is bisected by the border between the cities of Boston and Newton. It has 9,200 full-time undergraduates and 4,000 graduate students. Its name reflects its early...
, the California Digital Library
California Digital Library
The California Digital Library is the University of California's 11th University Library. The CDL was founded to assist the ten University of California libraries in sharing their resources and holdings more effectively, in part through negotiating and acquiring consortial licenses on behalf of...
(for all campuses of the University of California System), Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, Emory University
Emory University
Emory University is a private research university in metropolitan Atlanta, located in the Druid Hills section of unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. The university was founded as Emory College in 1836 in Oxford, Georgia by a small group of Methodists and was named in honor of...
, Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
, Michigan State University
Michigan State University
Michigan State University is a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan, USA. Founded in 1855, it was the pioneer land-grant institution and served as a model for future land-grant colleges in the United States under the 1862 Morrill Act.MSU pioneered the studies of packaging,...
, New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
, Ohio State University
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State, is a public research university located in Columbus, Ohio. It was originally founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and is currently the third largest university campus in the United States...
, Penn State University, University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, University of Notre Dame
University of Notre Dame
The University of Notre Dame du Lac is a Catholic research university located in Notre Dame, an unincorporated community north of the city of South Bend, in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States...
, University of Wisconsin–Madison
University of Wisconsin–Madison
The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...
, Vassar College
Vassar College
Vassar College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college in the town of Poughkeepsie, New York, in the United States. The Vassar campus comprises over and more than 100 buildings, including four National Historic Landmarks, ranging in style from Collegiate Gothic to International,...
, and Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
.
In 2000 and in collaboration with the ARTFL project at the University of Chicago the company began using semantic indexing techniques in its Humanities databases. It created metadata elements for gender, age, and sexual orientation of characters within plays; author nationality, birth and death place, as well as where and when an item was written. These elements were then combined with full-text search to allow material to be analyzed in new ways.
In 2003 the company began a major partnership with The Center for the Historical Study of Women and Gender at the State University of New York to publish Women and Social Movements
Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000
One of the premier collections on the World Wide Web for the teaching of U.S. history, Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600 to 2000, serves as a resource for students and scholars of U.S. history and U.S. women's history...
. This has subsequently become a leading site for the study of women's history
In November 2004, Alexander Street acquired the principal assets of Classical International, a London and New York-based publisher of streaming music for libraries. This led to a new range of music publications, including a partnership with the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
to provide Smithsonian Global Sound for Libraries and African American Song. One of the founders of Classical International, Tim Lloyd, is currently COO at Alexander Street.
In November 2005 Alexander Street acquired the range of religious products produced by Ad Fontes,LLC, including The Digital Library of Classic Protestant Texts and The Digital Library of the Catholic Reformation.
In 2005 the company expanded into Europe, setting up an office in Stevenage, UK. In 2007 it began an office in Shanghai, China under the leadership of Jia Jun Zhu and Ning Zhu. These offices are complemented by individuals working in Brazil, Australia and New Zealand.
In October 2006 the company acquired the assets of University Music Editions, a small microfilm publisher specializing in the publication of scores, journals and other musically oriented publications. These collections were subsequently released as part of Classical Scores Library.
Late in 2006 the company began development of online collections of video. Theatre in Video was published in April 2007 and has been followed by a succession of online streaming video collections. Using techniques such as semantic indexing, initially developed for textual databases, it was an early provider of synchronized, scrolling transcripts that allow the watcher to read ahead. At the 2010 Midsummer American Library Association the company advertised 9 streaming video collections spanning more than 9,000 individual video titles.
In April 2007, Alexander Street acquired the principal products of HarpWeek, LLC publisher of Harper's Weekly and Lincoln and the Civil War.
As of January 2010, Alexander Street Press had estimated revenues in excess of $12m per annum. The company claims more than 1,500 agreements with authors, estates, publishers, film studios and music labels, including Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
, EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
, and a large number of university presses. Its catalog lists more than 70 products in Anthropology, Education, Counseling and Therapy, Diversity Studies, Women's History and Literature, Music, Latin American Literature, Drama, Film, and History.
In September 2010 Alexander Street acquired Microtraining Associates, LLC, a specialist producer and distributor of therapy and counseling video. In December 2010 the company acquired Filmakers Library, Inc, a distributor of issue based documentaries.