Littman Library of Jewish Civilization

ACLS Humanities E-Book is pleased to announce that the Littman Library of Jewish Civilization is now a contributing publisher to our collection. Established in 1965, the Littman Library is a respected leader in Jewish Studies titles.

Our forthcoming release of new titles in early summer 2013 will include the first 27 volumes of the Littman Library's ongoing series Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry, launched in 1986 by the Institute for Polish-Jewish Studies and presenting interdisciplinary takes on all aspects of the history of the Jews in Poland. 

New on HEB: The English Institute's Taking Liberties with the Author

HEB is pleased to announce the release of our latest XML title, Taking Liberties with the Author, edited by Meredith L. McGill and published by the English Institute in collaboration with ACLS. This work is the third born-digital installment in the English Institute's series of publications derived from its annual conferences; it comprises selected papers from the 2010 conference, "Author," held at Harvard University. This volume features five essays, in addition to the editor's introduction, exploring the place of the author in literary discourse. In essays that range from an analysis of authorial disavowal in ancient and medieval rhetorical traditions to an account of corporate authorship as articulated in the Disney-Pixar merger , this volume explores the persistence of the figure of the author as a shaping force in literary criticism.

HEB White Paper 4 Released

HEB recently published its fourth official white paper, Perception Analysis of Scholarly E-Books in the Humanities at the Collegiate Level by Lee Walton and Edward Reiner, which is now available on our website here and as a downloadable PDF. This report examines perceptions and preferences among academic librarians regarding e-book offerings in the humanities, and provides an overview of currently available digital scholarly resources.

HEB thus continues to make available its findings from studies and surveys conducted to investigate the evolution of digital scholarship since the launch of the collection in 2002. Our previously released reports detailing the results of these efforts can all be found on our website: http://humanitiesebook.org/help/white-papers.html.

HEB at ACRL 2013 in Indianapolis

HEB will be an exhibitor at the Association of College & Research Libraries meeting taking place from April 10-13, 2013, in Indianapolis. Visit the conference website for details and registration info.

Stop by to see us at Booth 129! We look forward to discussing our upcoming release of 300+ new titles and our new and improved collection interface, to be launched in the coming weeks. We'll also have our most recent white paper on hand and free giveaways.

You can also contact us at subscriptions@hebook.org to set up an appointment ahead of time. 

New Participating Societies Partner with HEB

ACLS Humanities E-Book is pleased to announce that the American Academy of Religion (AAR) and the World History Association (WHA) have partnered with HEB as contributing societies. HEB actively works to expand the areas of scholarship included in our collection to reflect current trends and interests in scholarly research, and now collaborates with twenty-seven of ACLS’s constituent learned societies on these efforts. (See a list of all participating societies here.) As new contributors, AAR and WHA have recently developed lists of recommended titles of enduring value in their fields.

The AAR list was compiled by the heads of the AAR’s sixty-four program units, which include the following: Animals and Religion; Buddhist Critical–Constructive Reflection; Chinese Religions; Indigenous Religious Traditions; Law, Religion, and Culture; Mysticism; Pragmatism and Empiricism in American Religious Thought; Queer Theory and LGBT Studies in Religion; and Religion in Europe. These recommendations increase and diversify our offerings of high-quality titles in religion and theology.

HEB received a comprehensive bibliography of significant works in world history from The World History Association, admitted to ACLS in 2011. These titles reflect the WHA’s goal of fostering historical analysis undertaken from the point of view of the human community as opposed to that of specific nation-states, discrete regions or particular cultures. This list greatly expands our offerings in transregional, transnational and transcultural studies.

In addition, HEB was recently provided with new title suggestions from existing contributors, such as the American Society for Environmental History and the American Historical Association’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Historians Task Force.

Over the past few months HEB has been securing rights to and acquiring books based on these recommendations, which will form part of our upcoming release of several hundred titles scheduled to go live in late spring or early summer 2013. We look forward to making these scholarly-selected titles in the emerging and traditional fields of environmental history, LGBTQ studies, religion and world history available to our subscribers.

Latest HEB Top-Hit Titles (Spring 2013)

The latest list of the ten most frequently hit titles in the ACLS Humanities E-Book collection (totaling 3,700 books) is posted below. These findings are from our most recently processed royalty period, covering July 2012–December 2012.

In addition to the titles making repeat appearances on this list, there are two new entries for this cycle: Walter Johnson's Soul by Soul: Life Inside the Antebellum Slave Market, investigating the politics and social mores of the domestic slave trade through the example of the New Orleans slave market; and Computer: A History of the Information Machine by Martin Campbell-Kelly and William Aspray, which details the origins of this life-changing technology in business and government in the form of huge appliances through the development of our familiar home PCs. Frequent use of specific titles in the collection generally indicates recent course adoption or simply growing interest from scholars in the fields in question.

1. Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (Verso, 2006)
2. Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays (Basic Books, 1973)
3. McClintock, Imperial Leather: Race, Gender and Sexuality in the Colonial Contest (Routledge, 1995)
4. Jenkins, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide (New York University Press, 2006)
5. Mintz, Huck's Raft: A History of American Childhood (Harvard University Press, 2004)
6. Polanyi, The Great Transformation (Beacon Press, 1957)
7. Richter, Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early American (Harvard University Press, 2003)
8. Johnson, Soul by Soul: Life Inside the Antebellum Slave Market (Harvard University Press, 1999)
9. Ngai, Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America (Princeton University Press, 2004)
10. Campbell-Kelly and Aspray, Computer: A History of the Information Machine (Perseus Books, 1996)

New Handheld Titles Just Released

HEB has just released another round of downloadable titles, including Paul Boyer and Tom Engelhardt's By the Bomb's Early Light: American Thought and Culture at the Dawn of the Atomic Age, Samuel Y. Edgerton, Jr., The Renaissance Rediscovery of Linear Perspective, Anne McClintock, Imperial Leather: Race, Gender and Sexuality in the Colonial Contest, and James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era.

This brings the number of handheld titles now available from HEB to around 90, with dozens more slated for conversion in the coming months. Fields covered include Women's Studies, Religious Studies, Native Peoples of the Americas,  Asian History, African History, Latin American History and more; publication dates span the 1920s through 2000s.

All titles in HEB's handheld/mobile editions program may be individually purchased for $9.99 from various retailers, including Amazon, BooksOnBoard, eBookMall, Lybrary.com, Powell's Books, Feedbooks, and others.

For details on the program, please visit: http://www.humanitiesebook.org/handheld.html.