Back(list) to the Future: Making Older University Press Monographs Digitally Available

Making older books digitally available presents significant hurdles, primarily due to the high costs involved in converting physical copies to digital formats and the complex legal work required to secure digital rights from authors or their estates. Additionally, there are technical challenges in ensuring digital accessibility for all readers and enriching often-incomplete metadata to make these valuable works discoverable and useful in today's digital world

The University of Michigan Press's (UMP) "Back(list) to the Future" initiative aims to digitally convert its entire backlist of approximately 3,500 monographs published since 1930, primarily in the humanities and qualitative social sciences so that they are all available to libraries that support the UMP Ebook Collection (UMP EBC) and its Fund to Mission open access goal of publishing 60 immediately OA frontlist titles every year.

The overarching goal of "Back(list) to the Future" is to make UMP's older scholarly works digitally available and open access where possible. This ambitious program navigates significant financial, legal, and technological complexities to produce high-quality, accessible, and durable DRM-free ebooks, hosted on its open-source Fulcrum platform. The program is funded through various sources, including self-funding and (for open access) participation in initiatives like Humanities Open Book, Big Ten Open Books, and Knowledge Unlatched. It seeks to preserve primary research, build upon foundational scholarship, and offer historical context, expanding the reach and impact of these important works.

The recording below is of a webinar held on September 2, 2025, titled "Back(list) to the Future," which provided a comprehensive overview of this UMP initiative.

Hosted by Lyrasis, the session detailed the various considerations involved. Presenters explained why backlist titles are crucial for preserving primary research, building on foundational scholarship, and providing historical context for current events. Financial discussions revealed a "fully loaded" cost of approximately $3,800 per open access title, outlining funding strategies. Legal considerations focused on contract analysis to triage titles based on digital rights and the challenges of the "Grey Zone" when rightsholders are difficult to locate. Technologically, the webinar highlighted the digital conversion process from PDFs to accessible EPUB3s, including AI-assisted alt-text creation and metadata enrichment using Generative AI for book descriptions and author biographies, all subject to human review for accuracy and style. Interactive poll questions engaged the audience throughout the discussion.