Michigan State University Press

• 1. Introduction

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  Michigan State University Press was established in 1947 as the scholarly publishing arm of Michigan State University. It sits on the campus in East Lansing. The university, however, had been putting scholarship into print long before that year. What did it publish in those earlier decades? Which subjects does the press champion today? And how did a university press respond when readers began moving from the printed page to the screen?

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• 2. Before the Press

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  In 1876, a professor named A.J. Cook hired a printer in Lansing to produce his Manual of the Apiary. An apiary is a place where bees are kept, and the book was written for people who kept them. It proved popular, went through numerous editions, and stayed in print for nearly half a century.

  By the 1890s, the university's Experiment Stations had started issuing a broad range of influential publications in the natural sciences. One of them, Birds of Michigan, appeared in 1892. It was beautifully illustrated, which set it apart from plain technical reports.

  Bees and birds, then, were among the first subjects the university sent to the printer. Nature and the Michigan landscape would return as major themes in the press's later list.

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• 3. Fields of Focus

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  African studies, African American studies, American studies, and American Indian studies are the first four areas the press names as special emphases. The press publishes mainly in the humanities, the sciences, and the social sciences. Within those broad territories, it picks out a specific set of strengths.

  Creative nonfiction and poetry represent the literary side of the list. Environmental science and natural history represent the scientific side, and they echo the university's earliest printed work on birds and bees.

  Great Lakes studies, immigration studies, and Latino studies tie the list to the region and to the people who have moved through it. Politics and the global economy, US history, urban studies, and women's studies complete the roster.

  A list this wide needs steady output to fill it. The press's yearly numbers show how much it produces.

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• 4. Output and Digital Shift

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  About 40 new titles a year come out under the Michigan State University Press name. The press also publishes nine scholarly journals. Its backlist, the older books still available to buy, holds over 600 active titles.

  In 2008, the press began moving aggressively into digital distribution. Nearly all new titles are now available electronically at the same moment they appear in print. A reader no longer has to wait for a printed copy to find a new book.

  Since 2008, a new Michigan State University Press book has generally reached readers in print and on screen together.

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