Issue date: 5/27/08 Section: Campus

Walking into Northwestern University Press is almost like walking into a far corner of the campus library. The muffled tapping of fingers on a keyboard and the abrasive creaking of the front door break the silence. A simple table of books stands in for a front desk, and cubicle walls hide employees from sight.

Located in a red brick house at 629 Noyes St., Northwestern University Press is largely unknown to NU students, although Director Donna Shear said she works to improve the Press' visibility on campus.

"Being a major research university, Northwestern has a university press," Shear said. "It's considered part of the mission of a large research university."

The Press acquires, edits and markets about 60 books each year with its 16-person staff, in addition to work study students and interns.

Not all authors are NU professors, although the press focuses its publishing within a few key disciplines that relate to university faculty areas of expertise, which includes continental philosophy, Slavic studies, literary criticism, fiction and poetry, and performance studies and theater, Shear said.

The Press' editorial board reviews submitted books and makes the decision to publish based on the text's scholarship and fit into its areas of focus. Many university presses do not align their publications closely with their university's areas of specialty, but NU's press tries to publish in close keeping with the university's academic strengths, Shear said.

Once presses develop expertise in a particular subject, they "tend to continue to (publish) in that discipline even if it's not the focus of the university," she said.

"One of the reasons why we publish a lot in Slavic studies is because we have one of the best departments in the country," said Prof. Peter Hayes, press board chairman for the editorial board. "We would like to make sure that we showcase the special strengths of the university, and that can mean that we are as much of a publishing presence in areas as we are a scholarly authority."

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