New director appointed to University Press

After nearly a year of searching for a new director of the IU Press, members of the search and advisory committees realized the perfect candidate for the job was already among them.\nJanet Rabinowitch, long-time IU faculty member and interim director of the IU Press, was chosen to lead the organization. Rabinowitch is the fourth director and first woman to head the IU Press, which was founded 53 years ago and is among the country's largest public university presses. \nRabinowitch's appointment as director was approved by the IU board of trustees at its August meeting, but IU-Bloomington Interim Chancellor Ken Gros Louis made the official announcement Monday afternoon.\nFred Eichorn, president of the board of trustees, said it was a unanimous decision.\n"(Janet) has been at the press for 29 years," Eichorn said. "She served as a sponsoring editor, senior sponsoring editor, editorial director and was interim director at the time it was made permanent."\nEichorn said Rabinowitch has a strong academic reputation and has written many books that have won prestigious awards. \n"She has worked at the press for a number of years and knows the press exceptionally well," Gros Louis said. "She was the recommendation from the search committee, as they have great confidence in her judgement and abilities."\nRabinowitch's duties will include making decisions on manuscripts that will be published by the press, serving as the IU face at national press conferences, meetings and conventions, and acting as a liaison with the University and all other campuses.\n"Janet is a very upbeat and thoughtful person," Marketing Manager for IU Press Marilyn Breiter said. "She knows how to make decisions, and she is enormously respected and liked by everyone here."\nGros Louis said although it is an extremely hard time for all University presses, he is confident in Rabinowitch's ability to work through challenges.\n"Janet has very strong support from the press staff," Gros Louis said. "We are all very pleased about her style of management."\nRabinowitch said the book market, along with academic library budgets, are currently shrinking. She said it is very difficult to be an academic press at this time, as big chains and wholesalers often return books if they are not sold right away.\n"It's definitely something that we have to work through," she said.\nRabinowitch said she hopes to keep up with the new trend of print-on-demand publishing, which allows members of the IU Press to order one book at a time as requested.\nThe IU Press, which publishes about 140 new books and 23 journals every year, is also working on building the overall program.\n"We are trying to steer our list in the direction of books that reach beyond specific disciplines and that are of interest to the academic world and to serious general readers," Rabinowitch said.\nRabinowitch said she also hopes to partner with units of the University to start electronic publishing, which she said will be the wave of the future.\nAfter 29 years as an editor, copy editor, sponsoring editor, senior sponsoring editor, editorial director and interim director of the IU Press, Rabinowitch said she is excited about the challenges that lie ahead.\n"I've been a central part of the press for so long, and I'm thrilled to be in the position of leading the press and working with its wonderful staff to reach even greater heights," she said.\n-- Contact campus editor Lori Geller at lfgeller@indiana.edu.