Cornell University Press received an $83,635 National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant to make classic out-of-print books from the Cornell University Press archive available electronically and free of charge to teachers, students, scholars and interested readers. 

The grant is one of the first in the NEH’s new Humanities Open Book Program, jointly sponsored by the NEH and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and part of nearly $2.5 million in NEH grants being awarded to projects in New York state this year.

“As America’s first university press we are extremely honored to receive this generous grant from the NEH and expand our role as a leader in open access scholarship,” said Cornell University Press Director Dean Smith. “Our close collaboration with the Cornell University Library and noted scholars in the field ensured that the Cornell books chosen for this project are ones that will truly make a significant global impact in each of their respective fields – literary criticism and theory, Slavic studies and German studies.”

“The National Endowment for the Humanities is pleased to join with the Mellon Foundation in announcing the first round of Humanities Open Book grants,” said NEH Chairman William D. Adams. “These 10 projects will put important out-of-print books into the hands of the public, widening access to the ideas and information they contain, and inspiring readers, teachers, and students to use them in exciting new ways.”

Kizer Walker, director of collections for Cornell University Library, said: “The NEH project builds on a successful six-year collaboration among the library, the press and Cornell scholars on book publishing in the Signale program, which also includes an open access component four years after publication. Signale publishes new English-language scholarship on the literature, culture, criticism and intellectual history of the German-speaking world, and several of the titles that will be opened up with NEH support will closely complement our Signale books.”

Oya Rieger, Cornell associate university librarian for scholarly resources and preservation services, added: “We are delighted to hear the news and look forward to partnering with the press in exploring how to turn outstanding out-of-print books in the humanities into freely accessible e-books. This new program will be instrumental in expanding the reach of terrific books written by scholars throughout the years.”