Short answers, pulled from the story.
Michigan State University Press officially established itself as a formal entity in 1947. This date marks the transition from scattered experiment station outputs to a unified scholarly publishing arm.
East Lansing served as the physical home for these new operations on the MSU campus. The creation of the press centralized what had previously been disparate academic efforts.
The press publishes principally in humanities, sciences, and social sciences today with special emphasis within African studies, African American studies, and American Indian studies. Great Lakes studies and environmental science form another core area of their catalog alongside immigration studies, Latino studies, and women's studies.
Current statistics show the press issues some 40 new titles each year. They maintain nine active scholarly journals alongside their book program and manage a backlist of over 600 active titles.
Beginning in 2008, the press moved aggressively toward electronic distribution channels. Nearly all new titles became simultaneously available electronically from that point forward.