news and updates from NUS Publishing / Singapore UP

NUS PRESS catalogue

2006-11-02T14:53:00.000+08:00

We're now publishing our scholarly titles under the imprint NUS PRESS instead of Singapore University Press in an effort to align ourselves closer to the university's overall branding.

The 2006-07 catalogue is now available, showcasing the line-up in the next 8 months.

If you want your own printed copy, please send us an e-mail (nusbooks@nus.edu.sg) or drop in at our office on the NUS campus.

UK Independent Bookstores struggle to survive

2006-05-22T16:31:00.000+08:00

The Guardian carried a report on the state of independent bookstores in the UK today. Interesting mix of views about the future of these community-based stores. If you thought books were expensive in Asia, take a look at the prices quoted in this piece!

In Singapore, we have Select Books at Tanglin Shopping Centre. We used to have Skoob Books, but they went out of the retail business because they couldn't afford retail space rentals. Recently, Research Books at UE Sqaure also closed. Knowing that the stuggle of indie bookstores is a world-wide phenomenon... will the likes of Select Books survive? I certainly hope they can and do survive... not just because we need them professionally, but for me personally, it's such a joy of a place to go to!

Contentious Journalism and the Internet-launched!

2006-02-23T11:20:00.000+08:00

NUS Publishing and Institute of Policy Studies launched Cherian's new book yesterday, amidst the sad news of the passing of Singapore's former Foreign Minister, Mr Rajaratnam, who was a journalist and editor before he embarked on a career in politics. We observed a minute's silence to remember Mr Rajaratnam and his invaluable contributions to Singapore.

Cherian gave a short talk on his book, highlighting some inherent issues in journalims, e.g. myth of "objective" journalism, and pointing out that human ingenuity, not technological "hardware", is the main ingredient to more democratic dialogue and endeavours. This is clearly evident when he compared alternative media sites in Malaysia with those in Singapore.

You've got to read the book! :)

New Book by Cherian George, ex ST journalist

2006-01-18T15:19:00.000+08:00

Launching soon, a new book by Cherian George entitled Contentious Journalism and the Internet: Towards Democratic Discourse in Malaysia and Singapore .

Cherian George wrote the bestseller Singapore: The Air-conditioned Nation, published in 2000. In his new book, which is based on his PhD thesis, he turns his attention to journalism and examines how the Internet technology has impacted the nature of journalism and the wider implications of civil society's engagement with the government in Malaysia and in Singapore. It's an engaging read for anyone interested in politics and the media.

Details of the launch will follow next week, so come visit our site again!

Happy holidays!

2005-12-14T15:31:00.000+08:00

Last posting for the year and we take the chance to wish everyone happy holidays and happy reading. With some many other available distractions, it's getting harder to find time to read even during holidays! Maybe reading will one day be paid work ;)

In the meantime, we're still open during the the NUS holidays, except for Boxing Day and the weekends. Drop in for a browse if you're on campus...we have some new books, which we'll only send out alerts in the new year.

CIJ is indexed by Int Bibliography of Social Sciences!

2005-10-24T11:04:00.000+08:00

China: An International Journal is indexed by the International Bibliography of Social Sciences (IBSS). What does this mean? It means that you can google scholar search the titles of the articles in the journal, right down to keywords of the article. For research scholars, it means your articles are more likely to be found and read!

IBSS is based in the London School of Economics and Political Sciences. For more info on IBSS, see http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/IBSS/about/about_IBSS.htm

Thanks to Valee, Lena and Santha ... and Farewell Peter

2005-09-23T10:56:00.000+08:00

Believe it or not but three of our staff, Valee, Lena and Santha have been with the Press for more than 20 years respectively!! Singapore University Press has been around since 1972 after the University was renamed to reflect the separation of Malaysia and SIngapore. Hey... the Press is a part of the nation's history! Seriously though... it's wonderful to work with them because they are ever dependable and really know their stuff.

Sadly, Peter Schoppert, our managing director (and in-house blogger), left the Press in mid September for greener pastures. We wish him all the best and thanks for all the Fish during his time with us :) Meanwhile, Paul Kratoska is our acting director.

NUS Publishing Open House and Party

2005-09-07T10:00:00.000+08:00

If you're reading this, you're invited.

NUS Publishing invites you to afternoon tea

to celebrate long service awards for three of our staff -- Valee, Lena and Santha -- and to bid farewell and best wishes to our director, Peter Schoppert.

Prof Paul Kratoska will take over as Acting Director, NUS Publishing, with effect from September 14, 2005.

Place: SUP office at AS3-01-02. 3 Arts Link, Singapore 117569.
(next to LT 13 in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences)

Date: 9 September 2005
Time: 4 pm
Dress: Office attire. Bring/wear something bright
Nibbles, tea, wine and fruit juice will be served

RSVP to Winnifred Wong at winnifred@nus.edu.sg or 6874 8186 by 7 September

Hobson-Jobson's online!

2005-08-25T18:30:00.000+08:00

The definitive Anglo-Indian dictionary has been posted online by the University of Chicago's Digital South Asia project. This is a real joy... Hours of fun. Some places to start:

shampoo, pajamas, pundit, cashmere, veranda, pariah, thug, cummerbund, rattan, shawl, loot, punch, jungle, khaki, calico, cushy, dinghy, dungaree, juggernaut, bungalow, bandana, toddy, chintz

Thanks to Amardeep Singh of Lehigh University.

Conversations with Difference is "pick of the week" in the MelbourneAge

2005-08-19T10:20:00.000+08:00

Pick of the week last month, but we just received our copy today.

«Goenawan Mohamad has been at odds with the prevailing powers in Indonesia almost since his birth. His father was executed by Dutch occupying forces in 1947; when in his 20s Mohamad was denounced by the Indonesian Community Party and fled to Europe. The magazine, Tempo, which he founded in 1971, was banned by Soeharto’s regime in 1984. Under Soeharto, he developed an oblique and allegorical style of writing to avoid censorship. Unlike most opinion pieces, Mohamad’s essays written for Tempo are tantalisingly subtle and nuanced. Instead of easy outrage at the murder of a girl by her Palestinian father, Mohamad approaches this tragedy through a contemplation of the notions of “difference” and “sameness”. This tension between the “I” and the “not I” is teased out in another essay about monotheistic fundamentalism and its need to crush the “other”. Like all good essayists, Mohamad is more interested in meditating on the complexities of modern multicultural societies than offering up simplistic solutions.»

- Fiona Capp, Review, The Age, July 23, 2005

Conversations with Difference is published by Tempo, Indonesia, but distributed in rest of Asia and Australia by Singapore University Press.

Technorati Tags: literaryreviews

An evening with Jomo

2005-08-17T10:14:00.000+08:00

Yesterday the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies hosted a very nice "evening with Jomo" which was an opportunity to launch Malaysian 'Bail Outs'? Capital Controls, Restructuring and Recovery and After the Storm: Crisis, Recovery and Sustaining Development in Four East Asian Economies, both recently published by Singapore University Press. In addition, ISEAS took the opportunity to launchReforming Corporate Governance in Southeast Asia: Economics, Politics and Regulations, Ho Khai Leong (editor).

Jomo spoke on his overall research projects and direction, and fielded questions, among them "now that you have become a UN bureaucrat does it mean you will stop thinking...".

Many thanks to Director Kesavapany for hosting a lovely evening. NUS Publishing brought the wine...

Excerpts of Mustapha Hussain's memoirs posted online

2005-08-11T08:14:00.000+08:00

Sample a bit of this extraordinary life story through excerpts posted online. Says Insun Sony Mustapha, Mustapha Husain's daughter who translated his memoirs, they were "written in 1976 when he was 66 years old and 31 years after World War II ended. Despite his feeble health and long years of silence, these episodes of his life remained vivid in his mind..." NUS Publishing is distributing this book outside Malaysia on behalf of Malaysian publisher Utusan Publications & Distributors Sdn Bhd.

Are used book sales good or bad for publishers?

2005-07-29T12:55:00.000+08:00

This terrific article in the New York Times argues that used book sales are *good* for publishers. Article bolsters its case by linking to some academic papers freely available on the web, and it specifically examines university textbooks as an area where this is true.

National Library unveils Library 2010 plan

2005-07-24T23:33:00.001+08:00

Singapore's National Library can play a key role in Singapore's publishing ecosystem, and they have some ambitions in this area. [Update: The new Library 2010 plan has just been posted on the NLB website. It is a 2 MB download.]

Sad State of arts and cultural journalism in Singapore

2005-07-08T15:38:00.000+08:00

David Chew's article in Today covers the closing of arts publication Vehicle, and bemoans the state of arts journalism in Singapore. David mentions Vehicle, The Arts Magazine and FOCAS (we help a bit with their circulation: FOCAS is not closed but having a hiatus.) It is not just arts and culture: Singapore has no "quality" weekly or monthly, no "review" of cultural, political and social affairs. No obvious place to review university press books...

Emergence of Modern Southeast Asia

2005-07-08T15:20:00.000+08:00

Copies of this important new book arrived in our warehouse last month. We believe it really is the best single-volume history of Southeast Asia currently available on the market. Please contact winnifred[at]nus.edu.sg if you are interested in textbook adoptions.

British Library predicts 'Switch to digital by 2020'

2005-06-29T18:04:00.000+08:00

British Library puts numbers on the switch to digital publishing of research findings, projecting that "by the year 2020, 40% of UK research monographs will be available in electronic format only, while a further 50% will be produced in both print and digital. A mere 10% of new titles will be available in print alone by 2020."

The report calls this a "seismic shift", although it feels more like day-to-day reality for publishers like us in the middle of the transition.

Google at the AAUP meeting

2005-06-21T23:35:00.000+08:00

Google was a big subject at the AAUP meeting in Philadelphia. I asked a couple of questions in one session about territory rights and the Google Print program. However the main action was in the very well-attended session addressed by Tom Turvey, a Google Senior VP entitled "Online Opportunities". UP publishers in general seem very keen on Google Print, but the doubts creep in when it comes to Google's Library digitization project. To this newcomer to the American university press scene, it looked like the strong reaction from publishers reflected as much about university presses' deep but difficult relationship with their libraries as it did their relationship to Google. At base, presses believe that libraries shouldn't be in the business of digitizing of in-copyright material, no matter what the safeguards put around the resulting files.

I also heard one publisher saying that the growth of Google and Google Scholar would mean the end of libraries. "Who needs them if everything is online and open access, and you search Google to find it".

Remembering the Karayuki-san

2005-06-20T19:28:00.000+08:00

Very interesting article about remembering the Karayuki-san, the Japanese prostitutes who worked in Singapore in the early years of the 20th century. The piece takes the perspective of young Japanese women working in Singapore. It interviews Kazuo Sugino, the head of the Japanese Association in Singapore. If you don't know about the Karayuki-san, you must read our book, by James Warren.

Sacrilege: a university library dumps rare books

2005-06-19T00:16:00.000+08:00

The Guardian reports on an ill-advised and hastily-implemented "de-accessioning" program
at The Octagon library at Queen Mary, University of London, in Mile End, east London.

'This is a crass display of philistinism,' said one staff member. 'There are books dating back to the 18th century, there are first editions, there are copies of Voltaire.'

Another lecturer looking through a skip said: 'This is sacrilege. Look at all these books that are being thrown away without any thought. It is shocking.'

Day One of the AAUP meeting in Philadelphia

2005-06-16T23:10:00.000+08:00

That's American Association of University Presses. Yesterday was spent in a very useful and enjoyable discussion of fund-raising for university presses. Discussion centred around the various types of fund-raising that presses do, from title subventions and project funding to raising funds for endowments. Many different best practices were discussed, and picked apart. Those attending the round-table included press directors from Texas, Duke, the Getty, Amsterdam, Missouri, NYU, Rutgers, Texas A&M and others. Also present were development officers, both those employed by their presses or those employed by university development offices, and assigned to their university presses on some part-time basis.

Open access self-archiving: An author study

2005-06-11T11:27:00.000+08:00

NUS Publishing has been advocating that NUS support an institutional archive to allow and encourage scholars to self-archive their research work. The benefits of archiving pre-publication versions of papers is to 1) to make original research available easily and quickly, without overly-restrictive copyright barriers to use of material for education purposes, this as a supplement to the traditional journal publication system, and 2) to gather in a single searchable database the research work of the NUS community. A recent research project, published as Open access self-archiving: An author study, surveys authors to understand self-archiving from an author perspective. Clearly authors are ready for archiving, and they archive because they know it is the best way to get impact for their research.

Very useful for NUS library users - NUS Library Proxy Extension for Mozilla Firefox

2005-06-06T12:20:00.000+08:00

Written by Olivo Miotto, this extension is hosted on the website of the Institute of System Science at NUS. As the webpage says:

If you're an NUS researcher or student, you're probably familiar with this scenario: you search for a journal paper, you find the link (e.g. from PubMed) to the paper, only to find out that you need a subscription to get the full text. NUS has the subsciption (often) but you still need to log in. The savvy ones know that you can append '.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg' to the journal's host name to do this. This extension does the host name appending for you, so it belongs to the category 'dead simple but really useful'. If you find yourself at a journal site, you can right-click and select 'NUS Library Proxy' from the menu. The page will be reloaded via the NUS Library Proxy, so you can have full text access if NUS subscribes to the journal.

Echoes of Southeast Asia & China in the Ming - "Zheng He fever grips Asia"

2005-05-28T17:30:00.000+08:00

This article by Larry Teo usefully summarizes the various events going on to celebrate the 600th anniversary of Zheng He's voyages. It has a particular focus on Singapore of course, where there will be a conference, exhibitions and the erection of a fibreglass replica of what might have been the famous "dragon's tooth gate" of the old Chinese texts. Southeast Asia in the Ming Shi-lu editor Geoff Wade is quoted, reminding us that the Ming voyages were not purely peaceful in nature.

Academic vs popular histories

2005-05-23T10:55:00.000+08:00

A strong analysis, from the American point-of-view, of the enterprise of history-writing by David Greenberg. He takes a wide overview of the different choices and trends in history-writing, and the issue of their relevance to both academic and public audiences. What should we write about he asks.

He doesn't go on to analyze the situation from a publisher's perspective (though we note with gratitude the mention he gives to the key role university presses play here). The scholarly enterprise of writing history for scholarly audiences will always be of great importance. What is not clear is whether such writing can continue to be published in the usual manner, not if audiences for such books fall below a sales threshold of a few hundred copies. Is it economically rational to invest in book editing, production and marketing efforts for such small print runs, when cheaper alternatives for distributing this research exist?

Southeast Asia in Ming Shi-lu gets good review in Oxford's Humanities Hub

2005-05-23T08:05:00.000+08:00

Humbul Humanities Hub is a listing and review of online resources, including for Asian Studies. They've reviewed Geoff Wade's database, saying:
The site is well presented, quick to load and is an invaluable resource for anyone with an interest in Chinese and Southeast Asian history, particularly on account of the scarcity of primary research materials on this era of Southeast Asian history.

British Academy releases report on e-resources for humanities and social sciences

2005-05-22T12:09:00.000+08:00

The British Academy has released a major policy review report on E-resources for Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences. As the report says "There are significant developments in resource technology, in publishing practice, and in intellectual property, that have major implications for higher education and related research, and demand action."
The level of coordination of British efforts in this area is high, with funders obviously meeting and discussing regularly. The report makes several interesting conclusions, including calling for continued support of non-electronic publishing, particularly for monographs.

Geoff Wade interviewed on Radio Singapore International

2005-05-19T08:24:00.000+08:00

Geoff was interviewed about his Southeast Asia in the Ming Shi-lu, an open access resource recently published on the Singapore E-Press by NUS Publishing and Asia Research Institute. The interview touches on the importance of studying the Ming, and issues of the historical background to China's relationship to Southeast Asia. The interview is available online.

European initiative to digitize libraries

2005-05-06T08:56:00.000+08:00

See the Washington Times headline EU chief proposes online culture library - May 04, 2005: "

Google's digital library plans have motivated European governments to act to digitize non-English-language books. The rhetoric is that of the threat of English against other European languages, but the effort itself is a generous one, of sharing out-of-copyright publications with the world.

Oxford University Press announces new open access initiatives

2005-05-06T08:52:00.000+08:00

Oxford Journals announced that a new open access policy, that will allow authors to put "post-print", (ie peer-reviewed and edited) journal articles online for free, 12 months after publication, or immediately if authors' research grants cover "author pays" publication fees. (Note that they already allow authors to post "pre-prints" online, ie articles as submitted). This new OA initiative is innovative, and aligns Oxford with the new US National Institutes of Health policy. Oxford publishes a number of other open access journals.

See the OUP Journals press release for more information.

Greg Barton's Jemaah Islamiyah: Radical Islamism in Indonesia reviewed in the new FEER

2005-04-27T19:20:00.000+08:00

This is just a link to the Far Eastern Economic Review homepage, the book review itself is not available for free online. It is a positive review by Sadanand Dhume, who looks at Greg's work together with a number of recent books on Islam in Indonesia, including Robert Hefner's edited Making Muslim Politics. The new Review has a strong books section, which of course we think is a great thing.

Continuing relevance of Guns of February

2005-04-23T08:19:00.000+08:00

The fierce Chinese reaction to the new Japanese textbooks has been matched by some circles in Southeast Asia. The Federation of Chinese Associations of Malaysia led a petition drive, and the Johor Baru Chinese Federation conducted a ceremony that burned a Japanese soldier in effigy. Read the story in The Japan Times. Guns of February becomes an even more important book in this context, with its highly nuanced look at the actions of particular Japanese solider and officers, and they way they dealt with the legacy of their actions after the war.

Southeast Asia in the Ming Shi-lu

2005-04-04T17:36:00.000+08:00

Over the weekend, in chilly Chicago, we announced the launch of a new online resource, Southeast Asia in the Ming Shi-lu. This is a remarkable piece of work from Geoff Wade - an index of all the Southeast Asian references in the Ming Shi-lu, or annals of the Ming Dynasty imperial court. The index alone is highly useful, but these references are also translated to English, bringing the Ming Dynasty court records to Southeast Asian historians who may not have Chinese language skills. The site comprises more than 3000 entries, and indexes some 8000 place and personal names. The records can also be free-text searched. Thanks to the Geoff and the Asia Research Institute.

Paul and Winnie in the US for the AAS meeting

2005-03-30T11:29:00.000+08:00

Publishing Director Paul Kratoska and Marketing Manager Winnifred Wong are both in Chicago attending the AAS meeting. We have a small stand that we share with NIAS Press, and our books will also be on display at the University of Hawaii stand. Please drop by to say hello or leave us your namecard to be put on our new book alerts mailing list.

Guns of February reviewed in IIAS issue 36

2005-03-26T15:08:00.000+08:00

Chandar S. Sundaram at History department of Lingnan University gave a strongly favourable review to Guns of February in the latest issue of IIAS newsletter. He calls it "really the first attempt to showcase the Japanese fighting man of World War II. The picture that emerges is both fascinating and groundbreaking."

Sundaram points out one of the key strengths of this book when he said that the fascinating vignettes of the Japanese soldiers' daily existence and encounters bring "an immediacy to the book, so vital in discussing soldiers' lives 'at the sharp end of war'."

our titles on the ICAS bookprize longlist

2005-03-24T08:50:00.000+08:00

Seven SUP titles in the ICAS bookprize longlist, including Contesting Malayness, Dialogues with Chin Peng, Yaa Baa, The Singapore River, Gender Practice in Contemporary Vietnam, Earthenware in Southeast Asia, and Acehnese and Other Histories of Sumatra.

British Library and New York Public Library put image databases online

2005-03-10T09:08:00.000+08:00

The past week has seen launches of two new, very interesting online databases of images and printed matter from key libraries. British Library Images Online has thousands of images and makes them available for download and purchase. The New York Public Library Digital Gallery has 250,000 images available online, in specific collections. Not so strong on Asia, but very good on design and ephemera.

H-Net review of Goto's Tensions of Empire

2005-02-27T18:53:00.000+08:00

An excellent review of Goto Kenichi's Tensions of Empire by Bill Sewell. Says Sewell:

His views are particularly useful in that, like other recent scholars, he does not
dismiss entirely the published views of prewar and wartime Japanese
leaders as mere propaganda. Instead, taking them seriously--though
critically--Goto instructively recalls views once common in the colonial
world, views that prewar Japanese leaders sought to use to their
advantage, views that resonate even today.

Science books are vanishing from reach

2005-02-21T09:00:00.000+08:00

According to to Sir Crispin Davis in EducationGuardian. He is concerned about library budgets and tax policy in the UK, but the greater problem is global. Sir Crispin is CEO of publishing conglomerate Reed Elsevier, so his perspective is different than many from the library community. But the problem is undeniable.

NUS ranks among global top 10 universities for the social sciences

2005-02-17T13:26:00.000+08:00

The ranking was published last month, by the Times Higher Education Supplement (UK). See a summary here. Our area of publishing focus, Asia-related social sciences, complements NUS' strengths.

Book Review in The Star (Malaysia)

2005-02-03T17:42:00.000+08:00

Marie-Aimee Tourres reviews Chua Beng Huat's Life is Not Complete Without Shopping: Consumption Culture in Singapore on 12 Dec 2004. Unfortunately, The Star Online only archives articles for 30 days and we are unable to provide the link to the article ... bummer. Anyway, Dr Tourres points out that "consumption" goes beyond "shopping"-it encompasses a culture of "how-when-what-don't"s and all the sociology that goes with it. As she says, Beng Huat was written a «sharp analysis of his own society». In short, she enjoyed the book tremendously!

NUS Publishing newsletters and alerts

2005-01-29T19:00:00.000+08:00

We've created a Public Message Archive of messages and new book alerts sent out in the name of NUS Publishing or Singapore University Press. If after reading you'd like to sign up to receive via email, please go to http://www.nus.edu.sg/npu/alerts.html. Thanks for your support!

Prize award to Professor Ken'ichi Goto

2005-01-19T16:28:00.000+08:00

The Okuma Memorial Academic Prize has been awarded to Professor Ken’ichi Goto at Waseda University (Japan) for his book Tensions of Empire: Japan and Southeast Asia in the Colonial and Postcolonial World. This book is published by both Singapore University Press and Ohio University Press.

The Okuma Memorial Academic Prize was established in 1958 in memory of the late Shigenobu Okuma, the founder of Waseda University (Japan) to promote the arts and sciences. It is awarded annually to faculty members in recognition of outstanding contribution to their respective field of study.

See link for more info about the book.

Nature now supports institutional repositories

2005-01-15T13:37:00.000+08:00

See the copy of the press release where Nature, a division of Macmillan Publishers, has decided to encourage authors to post versions of their papers online, in university-run institutional repositories. They do request authors to post six months after publication, but it is a significant step nonetheless. This is a kind of retroactive endorsement of the US National Institute of Health's proposed policy of requiring online access for publically-funded research results.

Anthony Reid on Aceh Situation

2005-01-04T21:43:00.000+08:00

Tony Reid's piece on the Aceh Situation appeared in the op-ed section of today's Straits Times. We link here to a copy sent to the H-SEASIA online discussion group.

Tony has recently published An Indonesian Frontier: Acehnese and Other Histories of Sumatra under the Singapore University Press imprint.

tsunami relief: Paul Kratoska's note to the H-SEA mailing list

2005-01-02T11:10:00.000+08:00

For information on tsunami relief efforts, please see Paul's note sent to members of the H-SEASIA mailing list.

Google’s Library Project: Questions, Questions, Questions

2004-12-29T08:00:00.000+08:00

Very good article on the Google Print initiative, with information from participating libraries, Google, and prominent print and electronic publishers, as well as librarians.
Says one interviewee, "Google is a disruptive technology. This Google project will fundamentally change what we do in our business, but, that being said, it’s a great opportunity. It’s bringing so much to the table in one fell swoop; the opportunities are outstanding.”

Indian Ocean tsunami

2004-12-28T17:17:00.000+08:00

Friends in Sri Lanka say that the need for medical supplies (IVs, sutures, etc) and medicines (especially tetanus vaccine) is most urgent.

Singapore residents may wish to consider donating to the local Red Cross. See their
Humanitarian Assistance To The Victims of the Bay of Bengal Earthquake and Tidal Waves press release from yesterday.

The ecstasy that is Asia's agony - Yaa Baa reviewed in Straits Times

2004-12-23T16:39:00.000+08:00

Anthony Paul has written a strong article on methamphetamine and ecstasy abuse in Southeast Asia, with a discussion of Yaa Baa, by Pierre-Arnaud Chouvy and Joel Meissonier. He calls it "a riveting new book" which tells "a disturbing tale". (Note: registration is required to read Straits Times material, and I'm not sure how long they'll keep it online.)

SUP is hiring!

2004-12-20T13:01:00.000+08:00

We are looking for people to help us with the Singapore National Biography project. We are looking for a managing editor, resource managers and biographers. Biographers may be research or editorially-oriented, but in all cases will have a good familiarity with research into Singapore history subjects. The advert appeared in Saturday's Straits Times, and can be downloaded here.

Library Lookup Tool for NUS Library

2004-12-16T11:11:00.000+08:00

Totally useful and interesting library lookup tool from Jon Udell. When you are next on Amazon click on this "bookmarklet" to perform see if the relevant book is listed in the NUS LINC catalog.

To get it to work, drag the link below to your browser toolbar. Then when you are next on a Amazon or other book-related site (one that uses the ISBN number in the URL), give it a try. Very useful! We've tried it for the new Firefox browser and it works a charm, but have not fully tested it on Microsoft Explorer.

NUS Library Lookup

Click here for more on Udell's tool.

Google to digitize millions of books from university libraries

2004-12-15T15:02:00.000+08:00

Google sees this as an extension of their Google Print program. It could also potentially interact with Google Scholar in interesting ways. The Chronicle of Higher Ed asserts that there is still some caution and skepticism among university librarians about this project. The power of Google grows...

Bookshops in Taiwan

2004-12-12T21:02:00.000+08:00

Among the pleasures of a trip to Taipei are the city's many bookshops. The first stop is usually the Eslite or Chern Piing bookshop on Dun Hua South near the corner with Renai Road. While commercial realities have tempered its vision a bit, when it launched the Eslite bookshop was the model of a globalized bookstore, with great books in their original languages, plus Chinese and or English translations, as applicable. In any case it is still one of the great bookshops anywhere, open 24 hours. See this article for more on Eslite.

Many academics remember the Dunhuang or Caves bookstore on Chungshan North. It is not as useful a place to get academic books as it used to be, though it is still the place to pick up a set of Needham's Science & Civilisation in China. Of more interest may be the Southern Sky or SMC bookshop off of Roosevelt Road, near the entrance to Taida, the National Taiwan University. They publish books on Taiwan in English and Chinese, as well as license US university press editions for the Taiwan market.

For Chinese literature in particular, one might try the new My Library of Kingstone, near the Da-an Park.

Newest superstore bookshop on the scene is Page One, in Taipei 101, which has a strong collection of English books.

Book stand at the IAHA conference

2004-12-12T14:02:00.000+08:00

Our stand at the IAHA conference in Taipei, at the Academia Sinica.

IAHA Book launch

2004-12-08T10:58:00.000+08:00

Yesterday we welcomed colleagues at IAHA Taipei to a small reception after Anthony Reid's special lecture "Indonesia and Aceh: Democratising the Post-Imperial State". We had munchies and fruit punch, and a few words from recent authors in attendance, including Tony, Tim Barnard, editor of Contesting Malayness: Malay Identity Across Boundaries, and Nola Cooke, co-editor of Water Frontier: Commerce and the Chinese in the Lower Mekong Region, 1750-1880, a much-anticipated collection which we will publish in Asia and Australia in January. Also with us was Jerome Su of B.K. Norton, our newly-appointed representative for Taiwan, China and Korea.

NEW BOOK: An Indonesian Frontier: Acehnese & Other Histories of Sumatra, by Anthony Reid

2004-12-03T09:32:00.000+08:00

We've taken delivery of this in our bookshop on the NUS campus, and will be launching it next week in Taipei. However the book will not be scaled out to bookshops in the region till after the end-of-year holiday rush.

From the blurb:

This book is the fruit of 40 years' study of Sumatran history, from the 16th century to the present. While seeking patterns of coherence in this vast island, it focuses on Aceh, which has both the most illustrious past and the most troubled present of any Sumatran region.

book sale for Jomo's ARI Lecture

2004-11-24T16:29:00.000+08:00

We recently published a new volume from Jomo K.S., After the Storm: Crisis, Recovery and Sustaining Development in Asia, and offered it at his ARI Lecture, Wed, Nov 24, 2004. Jomo's lecture was entitled "Growth, Crisis and Recovery in East Asia: Capital, Markets and Government -- A Heterodox Perspective". Jomo was introduced by Prof Tommy Koh, Chairman of the ARI International Advisory Board.

Google Scholar is launched

2004-11-20T10:36:00.000+08:00

This has the potential to be a very interesting tool indeed. It does index citations, and so gives a measure of impact... it will be interesting to see how this feature stacks up against Thomson Web of Science and other citation analysis measures. The site also links to OCLC's World Cat, so you can check library holdings in your city for any book you locate through Google Scholar.

We met Google at the Frankfurt Bookfair and had a preview of this. We are now in communication with them to ensure that NUS Publishing materials are indexed by the Google Scholar crawlers.

Peter, Paul and Winnie to attend IAHA meeting in Taipei

2004-11-11T17:45:00.000+08:00

Peter, Paul and Winnie will be attending a meeting of the International Association of Historians of Asia in Taipei during the second week of December. We look forward to meeting colleagues, potential authors and business contacts during this period.

NEW BOOK - Yaa Baa: Production, Traffic and Consumption of Methamphetamine in Mainland Southeast Asia

2004-11-08T10:58:00.000+08:00

by Pierre-Arnaud Chouvy & Joel Meissonnier, with a preface from Stéphane Douvert.
The abuse of methamphetamines in Southeast Asia has become a major problem over the past decade. Thailand has been particularly hard hit: methamphetamine abuse now affects all sectors of Thai society. In the early 1990s, methamphetamine manufacturers moved their laboratories across the border into Burma, and began large-scale production. The new cheaper product, yaa baa or 'madness medicine', flooded the local market and it has also been found in Europe and the United States.

According to well-known research Bertil Lintner, "the authors analyze the growth of methamphetamine production in its rightful political context".

The book is co-published with IRASEC, Bangkok.

Paul Kratoska attends AAS meeting in Ann Arbor

2004-11-07T17:36:00.000+08:00

Paul Kratoska is away from the office for a week, attending meetings of the AAS Board and stopping by in Japan to see colleagues from the University of Tokyo Press, as well as authors and colleagues in Tokyo.

Visit from Bryan Yates, Ops Manager for Unireps

2004-10-19T15:28:00.001+08:00

Bryan Yates looks after operations at Unireps, the distribution arm of University of New South Wales Press. Unireps stocks and distributes for us in Australia, and has helped raise our profile in this key market. Bryan was stopping by on his way back from the Frankfurt Bookfair.

Dialogues w/Chin Peng in Singapore's leading Chinese daily

2004-10-12T15:08:00.000+08:00

Chin Peng's visit to Singapore, to deliver a talk at ISEAS, was the subject of press coverage in the Straits Times and in the Lianhe Zaobao, Singapore's leading Chinese daily. The book cover was featured above the fold on the front page on Saturday, 9th October. Zaobaoonly posts articles for a short time, so it is no longer available on the website. Sorry!

day two of the Frankfurt Bookfair

2004-10-07T18:09:00.000+08:00

It's day two of the Frankfurt Bookfair, and this is my first chance to connect to the internet. I'm writing this while downloading some 200 email messages... Including a couple of manuscripts I'm happy to say. The Fair is certainly a bit quieter this year, but it is good to see that our progress is recognized by partners and fellow publishers.

This is also the first year in awhile that Singapore has hosted a group stand. I missed the cocktail yesterday afternoon, which was scheduled for 4.30 pm. Too early! I had meetings till 6.30pm.

An interesting theme this year is electronic rights. More and more channels are available for e-books and databases, with a wider variety of business models.

book sale at ARI's first Public Lecture

2004-09-24T01:19:00.000+08:00

We ran a small sales table at the first in the ARI Public Lecture series, held at the Asian Civilisations Museum. A well-attended lecture by Prof Merle Rickleffs on Islamization in Indonesia.

Our book reviewed: Japan Times: Oppressive flag of Pan Asian liberation

2004-09-23T17:45:00.000+08:00

Interesting review of Tensions of Empire, a collection of essays by Prof. Goto Kenichi, in the Japan Times.

Yesterday's Open House

2004-09-18T11:07:00.000+08:00

A couple of photos from yesterday's open house. Thanks to everyone who came and helped us celebrate the move to our new office. For those who couldn't make it, we hope to see you soon. And for those we omitted to send an invite to (!) apologies, please come round soon...

You are invited to our Open House

2004-09-09T11:28:00.000+08:00

We have a new office and showroom. Come visit, and join us for an Open House on FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2004, from 5pm onwards. Please come and share some wine and nibbles.

Our new address is 3, Arts Link, AS3-01-02. Singapore 117569. If you are sure to come, please rsvp to Winnifred Wong at winnifred@nus.edu.sg or phone: 6874 8186.

Our new office is near LT13, on the ground floor of AS3. Parking for NUS staff is available at the Arts Link car park. Visitors may park their cars at the car park next to Eusoff Hall.

Peter to attend Frankfurt Bookfair

2004-09-07T17:13:00.000+08:00

I'll be attending the Frankfurt Bookfair again this year, to meet with our current and potential publishing and distribution partners. I'll be at the fair from October 5th to 10th. We will have a small exhibit at the Eurospan group stand, in Hall 8.0, with the American and European presses. In the past this has proven a congenial place to exhibit, together with other publishers handled by Eurospan, including Stanford University Press, M.E. Sharpe, University of North Carolina and others.

Launched: the Singapore E-Press

2004-09-05T23:35:00.000+08:00

The Singapore E-Press is a platform for online journal publishing. There are two elements to the E-press - an online peer review management system, to allow journal editors to manage the journal submission and editing process, and an online publishing system tuned to offer open access online journals. We are using the system developed by John Willinsky's team at the University of British Columbia's Public Knowledge Project.

Paul Kratoska at Euroseas Meeting in Paris

2004-09-01T08:42:00.000+08:00

Publishing Director Paul Kratoska is attending the 2004 Euroseas meeting in Paris, France, from September 1st to 4th. He will be back in Singapore on Monday, September 6th. Prospective authors are encouraged to meet up with Paul at the Euroseas meeting.

Warehouse Sale

2004-08-30T10:50:00.000+08:00

From August 27 to 28 we had a warehouse sale of SUP books at our old Yusof Ishak House premises. Thanks to everyone for their support. We are pleased to extend our "warehouse sale prices" for anyone who visits our new office at AS3-01-02 for at least one of these titles:

The Lee Kong Chian Art Museum Catalogue by Lu Yaw
The Chinese art collection of the Lee Kong Chian Art Museum, National University of Singapore, is presented in this catalogue published to commemorate the Museum's official opening in August 1990. There are some 540 plates (350 in colour)and the book has 456 pages. Original price: S$80.00. Warehouse sale price: S$ 5.00 only! While stocks last!

Peter presents to ASEF University Alumni Network

2004-08-28T10:32:00.000+08:00

The Asia Europe Foundation has been running a series of exchange programs for graduate students from, well, Asia and Europe, and these students have formed an alumni network. They are publishing an e-Journal called Asia-Europe Voices, and we discussed some ideas of how best to publish an e-Journal.

new book: Gender Practices in Contemporary Vietnam

2004-08-08T13:24:00.000+08:00

by Lisa Drummond and Helle Rydstrom
How do Vietnamese display their social position and their identitiies as male or female? This volume looks at the transgressions and negotiations within particular spaces and places in Vietnamese society. Examined through an exploration of family, social and work relations, gender is conceived here as a process of crafting oneself through the social practices of daily life.

The essays reflect a broad range of scholarly traditions and viewpoints (American, American-Vietnamese, Australian, Canadian, Scandinavian and Vietnamese) and analytical perspectives as diverse as those offered by Simone de Beauvoir and the second wave of western feminism. Each essay demonstrates a clear connection between physical spaces and configurations of femininity and masculinity in terms of bodily displays, body language and occupation of space.

Lisa Drummond is Assistant Professor of urban studies at York University in Toronto Canada. Helle Rystrom is a research fellow at the Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies at Lund University, Sweden.

publication year: 2004
316 pages
ISBN: 9971-69-306-2 Hardback US$35.00 S$55.00
ISBN: 9971-69-282-1 Paperback US$28.00 S$42.00
joint imprint with NIAS Press