OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Claire Dowbekin Senior Marketing Manager, Online, Scholarly Reference, and E-books Robert Faber Editorial Director, Scholarly and General Reference Reference: going large SLAIS at OUP, 20 June 2008

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS OED and ODNB Competition –OED: none on same scale –ODNB: none on same scale in British history; a lot of low-grade biography Online, print, CD … Online business model: subscription –unlimited –concurrent user –limited period

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS OED project OED first published 1884–1928 –20-volume print set; text first digitized in 1980s; CD Complete rewrite now under way: 70 staff –publishing online since March 2000 –currently 260,000 entries, 800,000 senses defined, 2.9 million quotations, 55 million words of text online –10,000+ revised or new entries a year, in 4 updates –Editing now based around online publication and electronic materials New search capabilities –By date, language origin, full text, quotations, etc. Online has brought new readerships

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS OED Online Markets: academic and professional libraries –Law, medicine, as well as humanities But also public libraries and individuals In 8 years OED has gone from being the 20- volume gorilla of the dictionary world … –Legendary but rarely seen in the flesh To the most-used Oxford dictionary online –2,300 to >4,000 subscribers in last 5 years –Up to 2.5 million entries viewed each month –Challenge now to offer content at all levels of use –Language tool-kit a mix of print, PC, and online

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OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Oxford DNB project First published 1885–1901 ( vols) –+ supplements: total 36,000 lives, 33 vols, 33m words New DNB project 1992–2004: £25m+ 55,000 biographies 10,000 images, 62m words Written by 10,000 people worldwide Communication, technology –50,000 sub-projects made possible by technology –Database prepared for any form of publication

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Publish all together Not the original plan Shortened timescale: 12 years not 20 More resources, more risk! Enabled focus on subsets of content Became a research project Mobilize 10,000 contributors –653 wrote the Victorian A–Z (29,ooo lives)

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS ODNB online Innovative online features Highly searchable –by place, occupation, religion, date, images, etc. Direct links other resources Online ‘themes’ growing as British history companion Rapid online sales growth Driving traffic: biography index

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS OED/DNB Marketing Content hugely relevant to everyday people Link to OUP’s mission Brand presence / awareness Established brand – challenge misconceptions

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Reaching Libraries 4 year deal; 94% English Libraries; remote access Great way to build awareness Working with librarians Ongoing commitment

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Reaching the public Expense of advertising “Free” PR Sometimes a challenge Our Crown Jewels “Grass roots”