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Purdue Libraries and School of Information Studies News

Purdue University Press and the Global Policy Research Institute (GPRI) Publish New Book, Free Online for Global Audiences

April 2nd, 2014

WEST LAFAYETTE, IN — Energy sustainability and climate change are the focus of a new book, published by Purdue University Press in collaboration with Purdue’s Global Policy Research Institute (GPRI). The book, Understanding the Global Energy Crisis, provides timely insights into one of grand challenges of our time and will be a valuable source of up-to-date information for advanced-level students and policy makers. It represents a trans-Atlantic collaboration between Purdue and the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) with authors from both institutions, and is edited by Eugene D. Coyle and Richard A. Simmons. Professor Coyle, previously at DIT, is now Dean of the Military Technological College of the Sultanate of Oman, while Richard Simmons is Executive Director of Purdue’s Air Transport Institute for Environmental Sustainability.

As well as being published in print and commercial e-book formats, Understanding the Global Energy Crisis is being made freely available online (http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/purduepress_ebooks/29/). “The issues we face in energy supply and use are global ones,” explains volume co-editor Coyle, “Making this book freely available online allows anyone with an Internet connection to access high quality information, and will spark the innovative solutions the world needs to address these major challenges.” Open access availability has been made possible thanks to pledges of support from over 300 academic libraries from 24 countries, working through the Knowledge Unlatched (KU) consortium. The book is one of only 28 volumes selected for the pilot collection. Two of these are Purdue-published books, giving the University a major stake in this highly innovative, international, open access monograph project.

In addition to being launched at the Schowe House at Purdue, the home of GPRI, on April 1, the publication of the book is being celebrated in Ireland with an event at DIT opened by the Irish Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Pat Rabbitte, TD on April 9.

For more information about Purdue University Press scholarly publishing initiatives, go to www.press.purdue.edu.

About Knowledge Unlatched (KU) Pilot Collection: 

Knowledge Unlatched is committed to creating a positive change in scholarly communication landscapes by helping libraries to share the costs of publishing high quality specialist scholarly books and making them available in Open Access. The Knowledge Unlatched (KU) Pilot Collection is the first step in creating a sustainable route to Open Access for Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) books. KU’s Pilot Collection of 28 new books from 13 recognized scholarly publishers, including Purdue University Press, will become Open Access. Support from a minimum of 200 libraries willing to participate in the KU Pilot was required in order to achieve this goal. This target was exceeded by almost half, with close to 300 libraries from 24 countries joining KU in support of its shared cost approach to Open Access for specialist scholarly books.

About Purdue University Press:  

Dedicated to the dissemination of scholarly and professional information, Purdue University Press selects, develops, and distributes quality resources in several key subject areas for which its parent university is famous, including business, technology, health, veterinary medicine, and other selected disciplines in the humanities and sciences. As the scholarly publishing arm of Purdue University and a unit of Purdue Libraries, the Press is also a partner for university faculty and staff, centers and departments, wishing to disseminate the results of their research.

Related web sites:

www.press.purdue.edu

www.knowledgeunlatched.org

Open Access version Understanding the Global Energy Crisis:  http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/purduepress_ebooks/29/